WOMEN AND EQUALITIES

Equal Pay

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities what the average change was in the gender pay gap in the (a) public and (b) private sector between 2008 and 2013.

Jennifer Willott: The gender pay gap decreased by 4.7 percentage points in the public sector and by 1.2 percentage points in the private sector between 2008 and 2013. This information is published by the ONS as part of their annual survey of hours and earnings. The figures are shown in the following table.
	
		
			 Gender pay gap in the public and private sector in 2008 and 2013 
			  Gender pay gap 2008 (%) Gender pay gap 2013 (%) Difference (percentage points) 
			 Public sector 21.9 17.3 4.7 
			 Private sector 28.1 26.9 1.2 
			 All employees 22.6 19.7 2.9

BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS

Agriculture: Technology

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how much of the £60 million provided to support proof of concept development of near-market agricultural innovations described in A UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies has been allocated.

David Willetts: To date 11 feasibility studies have been agreed, which will be supported by £2.8 million of Government funding and £1.4 million of industry co-investment. A further tranche of funding will be announced shortly.

Agriculture: Technology

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to A UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies, if he will list the activities undertaken by the UK Trade and Investment Business Ambassador to champion UK agri-tech; and which early stage markets have been identified for future growth.

David Willetts: James Townshend, the UK Business Ambassador for agri-tech, has undertaken the following activities to raise the UK's reputation in agri-tech; to support inward investment and exports:
	2013
	London—18 April. Met Hamish Renton, UK dairy specialist, in advance of visit to Qatar in May 2013.
	London—29 April. Met the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Mr Paterson), to discuss HMG Agri-Tech Industrial Strategy.
	London—30 April. Attended and delivered the keynote speech at the UK Dairy Export Forum.
	London—8 May. Met the Ambassador of Belarus to the UK to discuss potential business opportunities in Belarus for UK agricultural companies.
	Qatar—20-23 May. Led a scoping mission aimed at positioning UK companies to win potential contracts.
	Turkey—1 September. Visited the Agroexpo/Animal Expo, Eurasia.
	Angola—8-9 October. Led, with my noble friend Lord Marland, a multi-sector trade mission to Luanda, which included calls on the Angolan Ministers for Finance, Petroleum, Agriculture, Defence, Energy, Trade and Industry and Education.
	2014
	Burma—19-23 January. A scoping visit and meetings with key decision makers and practitioners.
	Early stage markets already identified are Angola and Qatar and we continue to keep our activity under review.

Agriculture: Technology

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to A UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies, for what reason Qatar was chosen as the first country for UK Trade and Investment to work with.

David Willetts: Qatar was chosen because of its Government's commitment to increase agricultural production over the coming years with the aim of becoming less reliant on imported food and more self-sufficient. This may offer important future opportunities for UK agri-tech organisations.

Agriculture: Technology

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to A UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies, what progress UK Trade and Investment has made on identifying possibilities for UK-based food and drink producers through the High Value Opportunity Programme for Food Security.

David Willetts: The scope of the High Value Opportunity for Food Security is dependent on the national strategies to be published by key target markets. Prospects for UK-based food and drink producers will become clearer once these strategies are published.

Agriculture: Technology

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to A UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies, how many times the Leadership Council has met; and what the items for discussion were at each meeting.

David Willetts: The Agri-Tech Leadership Council has met four times. The items discussed are set out in the following table:
	
		
			 Date Subjects discussed 
			 23rd September 2013 1. Launch of the Agri-Tech Strategy and future implications for the Leadership Council 
			  2. Funding position 
		
	
	
		
			  3. Leadership Council—general principles and roles, skills and knowledge 
			  4. Communications—general principles and ways of working 
			  5. Catalyst process and timetable 
			  6. Marketplace Networking Events for the Centres for Agricultural Innovation 
			   
			 26th November 2013 1. Centres for Agricultural Innovation—reflections and next steps 
			  2. Leadership Council—Outcomes, Metrics, Management 
			  3. Information and Project Plan 
			  4. Evaluation of the Agri-Tech Strategy 
			  5. UKTI approach on exports and inward investment 
			  6. Communications 
			  7. International funding 
			  8. Skills and knowledge transfer 
			   
			 16th January 2014 1. Agri-Tech Strategy small and medium size enterprise perspective 
			  2. Update on Catalyst bids and the Agri-Informatics Centre 
			  3. Potential private sector investment in Centres for Agricultural Innovation 
			  4. UKTI Programme on agri-tech inward investment and exports 
			  5. Skills 
			  6. Communications 
			   
			 2nd April 2014 1. Agri-Engineering 
			  2. Updates on the first successful Catalyst projects and discussions with the private sector on Centres for Agricultural Innovation 
			  3. Next steps in establishing the Centres 
			  4. Skills—update on next steps 
			  5. Priorities for the Leadership Council in next 12 months 
		
	
	In addition, the Leadership Council held a telephone conference on 24 February 2014 which discussed the proposed timetable and actions for commissioning the Centre for Agri-Informatics and Metrics of Sustainability, and arrangements for evaluating the Agri-Tech Strategy.

Agriculture: Technology

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to A UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies, what progress has been made in identifying skills needed to support the agri-tech research progress; and what steps he is taking to ensure the identified skills are being procured.

David Willetts: The Agri-Tech Strategy Leadership Council is delivering the skills commitments in the Strategy. Current work includes working with the UK research councils and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to map the gaps in research skills; working with the Agri-Skills Forum to promote the professionalisation of careers in agriculture; and working with Government to help shape the new Rural Development Programme with respect to agri-skills.

Agriculture: Technology

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to A UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies, how much of the £90 million to establish centres for agricultural innovation has been allocated; and how many such centres have been established.

David Willetts: Following the launch of the strategy we prioritised the Agri-Tech Catalyst, to encourage collaboration between industry and academia. We have been engaging further with industry to ensure the centres are developed as true partnerships. The process to establish the Centre for Agricultural Informatics and Metrics of Sustainability will be launched this spring. Therefore, to date, no centres have been fully established or money allocated.

Agriculture: Technology

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to A UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies, what progress he has made in establishing a Centre for Agricultural Informatics.

David Willetts: Over the last few months we have held a number of discussions and consultation events to identify priorities for this centre and others that will follow. Building on this input, a sub-group of the Agri-Tech Leadership Council has developed a specification that will be published later this month. The application process will open shortly thereafter.

Agriculture: Technology

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to A UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies, whether UK Trade & Investment has established a new dedicated team to increase the volume and value of overseas investment into the UK agri-tech sector.

David Willetts: Yes. The Agri-Tech Investment Organisation was established on 1 August 2013 within UK Trade and Investment. It is staffed by a mix of civil servants and industry experts dedicated to increasing the value and volume of overseas investment into the UK agri-tech sector.

Agriculture: Technology

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to A UK strategy for agricultural technologies, what progress has been made in mapping and evaluating private and government funding available for research, translation and innovation.

David Willetts: The UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies contains a number of actions for Industry, Government and the science base.
	Action No. 1 commits the Leadership Council, working alongside others, to conduct a comprehensive mapping and evaluation of private and Government funding available for research, translation and innovation.
	Work to deliver this action started at the end of March this year, led by the Agri-Tech Leadership Council. We expect the findings to be presented by the end of 2014.

Apprentices: Brigg

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many apprenticeships were started in the Brigg and Goole constituency in each industrial sector in each of the last five years.

Matthew Hancock: Apprenticeship data are not available by industrial sector. Within an industry, a learner may undertake a wide range of apprenticeship frameworks.
	Data are available by sector subject area. The following table shows the number of apprenticeship starts from 2008/09 to 2012/13 in Brigg and Goole constituency by sector subject area.
	
		
			 Apprenticeship starts by sector subject area in Brigg and Goole parliamentary constituency, 2008/09 to 2012/13 
			 Sector subject area 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 
			 Agriculture, Horticulture and Animal Care 10 20 20 20 20 
			 Business, Administration and Law 120 130 240 310 280 
			 Construction, Planning and the Built Environment 40 20 40 20 10 
			 Education and Training 10 — 10 10 10 
			 Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies 120 110 140 140 160 
			 Health, Public Services and Care 30 40 140 230 310 
			 Information and Communication Technology — 10 10 20 10 
			 Leisure, Travel and Tourism 20 30 20 20 20 
			 Retail and Commercial Enterprise 80 90 190 170 210 
			 Science and Mathematics — — — 10 — 
			 Total 440 460 810 950 1,020 
			 Notes: 1. Geography information is based on the learners’ home postcode. 2. Volumes are rounded to the nearest 10 3. “—” indicates a base values of less than five. 4. Figures for 2011/12 onwards are not directly comparable to earlier years due to the introduction of the single ILR: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140107201041/http://www.thedataservice.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/C05DCDD5-67EE-4AD0-88B9-BEBC8F7F3300/0/SILR_Effects_SFR_Learners_June12.pdf Source: Individualised Learner Record.

Apprentices: Lancashire

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many apprenticeships commenced in each sector in (a) Pendle constituency and (b) Lancashire in the last 12 months.

Matthew Hancock: Table 1 following shows the number of apprenticeship starts in the 2012/13 academic year by Sector Subject Area for Pendle parliamentary constituency and Lancashire local education authority.
	
		
			 Table 1: Apprenticeship Starts by geography and sector subject area, 2012/13 
			  Pendle Parliamentary Constituency Lancashire Local Education Authority 
			 Agriculture, Horticulture and Animal Care 20 140 
			 Arts, Media and Publishing — 20 
			 Business, Administration and Law 450 4,850 
			 Construction, Planning and the Built Environment 40 420 
			 Education and Training 20 280 
			 Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies 170 1,770 
			 Health, Public Services and Care 240 3,440 
			 Information and Communication Technology 20 270 
			 Languages, Literature and Culture — — 
			 Leisure, Travel and Tourism 20 340 
			 Preparation for Life and Work — — 
			 Retail and Commercial Enterprise 190 2,390 
			 Science and Mathematics — 10 
			 Unknown — — 
			 Total 1,150 13,930 
			 ‘—’ Indicates a base value of less than 5. Notes: 1. Volumes are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Local education authority and parliamentary constituency are based on the home postcode of the learner. Source: Individualised Learner Record

Asbestos

Stephen Pound: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many claims for asbestos-related illnesses were made against his Department in each year since 2003.

Jennifer Willott: The asbestos-related personal injury claims for which the Department is responsible are mainly historical liabilities that were assumed by the Department from various bodies, including former nationalised industries, whose liabilities transferred to the Department (as previously constituted) when those bodies ceased to exist.
	Based on available data, the number of claims for the years in question are listed by category, and are as follows:
	
		
			  National Dock Labour Board British Shipbuilders1 British Shipbuilders Chester Street2 British Coal3 Others4 
			 2003 — 645 31 11 — 
			 2004 — 854 37 103 — 
			 2005 — 771 15 47 — 
			 2006 — 214 4 42 — 
			 2007 — 119 8 42 1 
			 2008 5115 126 4 36 2 
			 2009 44 168 2 — 2 
			 2010 45 133 7 — 3 
		
	
	
		
			 2011 47 124 4 — 1 
			 2012 45 232 3 — 1 
			 2013 37 160 4 — 2 
			 2014 6 33 1 — 2 
			 1 British Shipbuilders was a separate legal entity, with BIS, as formerly constituted, as its sponsor department. British Shipbuilders was wound up in March 2013. Since then responsibility for these claims has passed to BIS. 2 BIS is responsible for compensation claims made against former British Shipbuilders' companies that were sold with their liabilities during privatisation, and which subsequently became insolvent, as did their insurer, Chester Street Insurance Holdings Ltd. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme does not compensate former employees in respect of periods of employment with nationalised industries (such as British Shipbuilders) and the Department (the then DTI) assumed liability for this compensation by way of a Minute to Parliament in 2003. 3 BIS does not hold complete figures for asbestos claims for British Coal for calendar years 2003, 2005 and 2006. British Coal liabilities transferred to the Department for Energy & Climate Change (DECC) on its creation in October 2008, so no figures have been included after that date. 4 The claims listed in the column headed "Others" are claims for which the Department is responsible as the successor to partner organisations and executive agencies which no longer exist. 5 The figure of 115 NDLB claims for 2008 is the complete number for the years 2006 to 2008 as the figures for these years have been aggregated.

Business

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many and what proportion of small and medium-sized businesses were registered in each parliamentary constituency; and what the equivalent figures were in each of the last five years.

Michael Fallon: There is no central register of businesses. Companies House does have a register of companies but it cannot determine the number of companies classified as small and medium sized as defined by the Companies Act 2006. Information on companies registered in each parliamentary constituency could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Business

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many businesses are registered in each constituency; and how many businesses were so registered in each of the last five years.

Michael Fallon: Companies House cannot identify the number of new businesses registered in each constituency, as there is no central register of businesses.
	Companies House does have a register of companies, but information on companies registered in each constituency could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Business: Billing

Debbie Abrahams: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills when he expects to publish his Department's response to the consultation on Building a responsible payment culture.

Matthew Hancock: We are currently analysing responses to the Government's discussion paper on building a more responsible payment culture and will publish the response shortly.

Employee Ownership

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many people have applied to be an employee shareholder under the Government’s Shares for Rights Scheme to date.

Jennifer Willott: There is no requirement for someone using the employee shareholder employment status to register with any Government Department or agency. Therefore, Government do not hold numbers.
	The employee shareholder employment status is a voluntary option that people may wish to consider using.

Employee Ownership

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many companies have applied to participate in the Government's Shares for Rights Scheme to date.

Jennifer Willott: There is no requirement for companies considering using the employee shareholder employment status to register with any Government Department or agency. Therefore, Government do not hold numbers.
	The employee shareholder employment status is a voluntary option that people may wish to consider using.

Employee Ownership

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills which independent advisers have been paid to advise employees about the Government’s Shares for Rights Scheme to date.

Jennifer Willott: The Government do not hold information on independent advisers used by individuals in relation to the employee shareholder employment status.
	It is for the individual to make their own decision about who to approach for independent advice, and a matter for the individual and company to agree the payment for independent advice.

Foreign Investment in UK: Israel

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of changes in the number of people in employment due to Israeli companies investing in the UK in 2013.

Michael Fallon: During the 2012-13 financial year UK Trade & Investment recorded 18 inward investment projects from Israel landing into the UK. It is estimated that these investment projects have brought with them 246 new jobs and 12 safeguarded jobs for the UK.

Higher Education

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether any alternative learning providers have not met the standards he recently announced on (a) quality assurance, (b) financial sustainability and (c) management and governance.

David Willetts: To date, 16 alternative providers that applied to have courses designated under the new specific course designation arrangements have not met the standards required. Three applications were rejected because of quality assurance; 13 applications were rejected because of concerns over financial sustainability.

Higher Education

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps his Department plans to take to monitor whether alternative learning providers are meeting the standards he recently set out on (a) quality assurance, (b) financial sustainability and (c) management and governance; and how he plans to facilitate the meeting of those standards.

David Willetts: Under the new specific course designation arrangements alternative learning providers are required immediately to notify the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) of any material changes which may affect their financial sustainability or quality of provision. HEFCE will also run an annual monitoring exercise to collect information about the ongoing financial sustainability, quality of provision, and changes to management and governance arrangements at alternative learning providers.

Minimum Wage

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many and what proportion of (a) people, (b) men and (c) women were in (i) work, (ii) full-time work and (iii) part-time work in each constituency earn the national minimum wage; and what those figures were in each year since 2010.

Jennifer Willott: The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), carried out in April each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. Hourly levels of earnings are estimated from ASHE, and are provided by the Office for National Statistics for employees on adult rates of pay, whose earnings for the survey pay period were not affected by absence.
	Estimates for the number and proportion of national minimum wage jobs at sub-regional geographies such as parliamentary constituency are not available for reasons of quality.
	Related information is available in the National Minimum Wage Low Pay Commission Report 2014, which contains some estimates for minimum wage jobs, as defined above, by regions, gender and full-time/part-time:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/288841/The_National_Minimum_ Wage_LPC_Report_2014.pdf

New Businesses: Young People

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many people applied to the 2014 Sirius Programme for young entrepreneurs; and if he will make a statement.

Matthew Hancock: The Sirius Programme, led by UK Trade & Investment, enables talented graduates with innovative start up ideas to start a business in the UK. Successful applicants receive support via a structured mentoring programme and participants requiring a visa, are able to access support through a dedicated visa route for the Sirius Programme. The current programme is a two year pilot-the first round was launched on 6 September 2013 and closed on 15 January 2014. A total of 1,543 people applied.
	A second round of the Sirius Programme will open shortly.

Overseas Students

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will make an assessment of the findings of the Oxford Economics report commissioned by the University of Sheffield entitled the Economic Costs and Benefits of International Students, January 2013.

David Willetts: The Government welcomes the benefits that international students bring to the UK as highlighted in the Oxford Economics report entitled Economic Costs and Benefits of International Students, January 2013.
	In July the same year, we published our International Education Strategy which estimated that in 2011/12 international higher education students contributed £10.2 billion to the UK economy through tuition fees and living expenses. The strategy also recognised the wider benefits that students bring in boosting the local economy where they study, as well as enhancing our cultural life, and broadening the educational experience of the UK students they study alongside. It is because we value this contribution that there is no cap on the number of genuine overseas students who can come to the UK, nor do we have plans to introduce one.
	After completion of study, all students who can secure a skilled job from a licensed sponsor and are paid at least £20,300 are welcome to stay and work in the UK. Those who complete a PhD have up to a year to find a graduate level job and move on to Tier 2 or move on to the graduate entrepreneur or exceptional talent schemes in Tier 1.

Overseas Students

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the economic benefits to the UK of international students.

David Willetts: The Government's International Education Strategy, published in July 2013, included an analysis of the value of international education to the UK. This analysis showed that international students across all parts of the education sector (higher education, further education, English language training, and independent schools) were estimated to contribute £13.6 billion to the UK economy in 2011. More recent data indicates that this figure rose to £13.9 billion in 2012.
	International students also bring indirect economic benefits to the UK, including: strengthening the quality, diversity and reputation of the UK education sector; providing a pipeline of prospective students who may study at higher levels in the UK; and improving overseas business, research, social and cultural links.
	The International Education Strategy and the accompanying analytical narrative can be found at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-education-strategy-global-growth-and-prosperity

Overseas Students

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will make an assessment of the effect on higher education providers of charging fees to international students for use of the NHS.

David Willetts: The Home Office published an impact assessment on its website on the 11 October 2013 entitled “Regulating migrant access to health services in the UK”, in which it estimates the impact of implementing a health surcharge as outlined in the Immigration Bill. The Home Office predicts that implementing a health surcharge could cause Tier 4 visa grants to fall by approximately 830, which will have an impact on higher education providers of approximately £11 million per year. The surcharge is £200 per annum for most migrants; however, to reflect their contribution to UK growth, a concession was factored into the Immigration Bill for students—they will pay £150 per annum rather than the full cost.
	BIS will continue to work closely with the Home Office and the higher education sector to monitor the effects of the surcharge on student numbers and to ensure that the impact is manageable.

Students: Loans

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills 
	(1)  whether recent increases in the estimated RAB rate for student loans go beyond his Department's target impairment for student loans;
	(2)  what his Department's current target impairment for student loans is; how such a level was decided on; when this target was introduced; and what change there has been in this target since its introduction;
	(3)  if he will publish regular information on the level of his Department's target impairment for student loans.

David Willetts: This Department does not set a target for impairment of student loans. Our reforms were designed to put higher education on a sustainable footing. Universities are now well-funded and this is driving up the quality of the student experience and helping to stimulate economic growth, while keeping access to higher education free at the point of entry.

Students: Loans

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the effect on his Department's total resource Departmental Expenditure Limits of the revised guidance on revaluation of student loan impairments in each of the next three years.

David Willetts: Student loan repayments are managed annually under government budgeting rules and any changes, for whatever reason, in forecast repayments, are considered as part of the Parliamentary Supply Process.
	Additional supply was agreed between this Department and HM Treasury, and approved by Parliament as part of the 2013-14 Supplementary Estimates process.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Electoral Register: Newcastle Upon Tyne

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what estimate he has made of the number of eligible voters in Newcastle upon Tyne Central constituency who will not be auto-enrolled under individual electoral registration.

Greg Clark: The information can be found at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-confirming-electors-through-data-matching

CABINET OFFICE

All Party Groups

Chris Ruane: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office pursuant to the answer of 26 March 2014, Official Report, column 300W, on All Party Groups, on how many occasions his Department has instructed its civil servants not to give evidence to All Party Parliamentary Groups in each of the last 10 years.

Francis Maude: The information requested is not held centrally.

Aspire to Change

David Amess: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how much has been paid by his Department to Aspire to Change (A2C) since its formation; for what purpose each payment was made; what assessment he has made of the value for money of such payments; and if he will make a statement.

Francis Maude: Since 2011, details of contracts above the value of £10,000 have been published on the Contracts Finder website at:
	http://www.contractsfinder.co.uk
	In addition, this policy extends to Cabinet Office expenditure over £25,000, which is published at:
	www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-spend-data

Cancer

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what progress has been made on the development of an indicator on five year survival rates from all cancers to support early diagnosis and reduction of preventable mortality from cancer.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Caron Walker, dated April 2014
	On behalf of the Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent question to ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made on the development of an indicator on five year survival rates from all cancers to support early diagnosis and reduction of preventable mortality from cancer.
	ONS published an index of survival for all cancers combined at five years after diagnosis in December 2013. This was for patients diagnosed from 1996 to 2011 and followed up to 31 December 2012. The index was produced for each of the 25 NHS England Area Teams, and for England as a whole.
	For further information please follow the link provided:
	http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/cancer-unit/a-cancer-survival-index-for-clinical-commissioning-groups/index.html
	The next edition of this new statistical series is expected to be published in December 2014.

Census: Internet

Mark Williams: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the percentage target was for people responding to the census online in 2011; and what proportion of people so responded.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Glen Watson, dated April 2014
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question to ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the percentage target was for people responding to the census online in 2011; and what proportion of people so responded. 194654
	There was no target percentage for online response. However, in order to ensure that the online census would be able to handle the load, it was necessary to make an estimate of the number of households responding online. That estimate was 25 percent. The actual proportion of online responses was 16 percent.
	Please find below a link to a report on the ONS website that shows 'How did we do in 2011?'. This includes links to online take-up rates detailing the percentage of household questionnaires returned online for the 2011 Census in England and Wales. Online returns are shown for the following levels of geography: Region, Local Authority District (LAD), Ward and Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) and also a report on 'Providing the Online Census'.
	http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/2011/how-our-census-works/how-did-we-do-in-2011-/index.html

Civil Service

Simon Kirby: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what progress he has made on reform of the Civil Service; and if he will make a statement.

Francis Maude: In July 2013 we published a One Year On report that gave a frank account of progress against the Civil Service Reform Plan. This is available at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-reform-plan-one-year-on--2
	I took the opportunity to update the House on progress during the backbench debate on Civil Service Reform on 3 April 2014 and will update the House further in our Two Years On report this summer.

Committee on the Grant of Honours Decorations and Medals

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will list the members of the Honours Committee in each of the last five years.

Francis Maude: The voting membership of the Main Honours Committee comprises Head of the Civil Service (chair); chairs of the nine Honours Committees; Chief of the Defence Staff; Permanent Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office; another Permanent Secretary; Cabinet Secretary and a representative from the Prime Minister's Office. Current membership of all honours committees is available at:
	www.gov.uk/honours-committees
	A copy of the table listing the membership of the committee over the past five years will be placed in the Library of the House.

Conditions of Employment

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what information his Department holds on the number of individuals employed on zero-hours contracts by (a) region and (b) gender; and what research his Department has commissioned on that matter.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Peter Fullerton, dated April 2014
	On behalf of the Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what information the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills holds on the number of individuals employed on zero-hours contracts by (a) region and (b) gender; and what research the Department has commissioned on that matter. (195252)
	Current estimates of the number of people on zero hours contracts are based on responses to a question on the ONS Labour Force Survey (LFS). While the LFS is the largest continuous household survey conducted in the UK, this question depends on employees knowing and correctly reporting their terms of employment. These estimates can be found in the following link:
	http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/about-ons/business-transparency/freedom-of-information/what-can-i-request/published-ad-hoc-data/labour/march-2014/zero-hours-analysis.xls
	To improve the estimate of the number of people employed on zero hours contracts, ONS is conducting a survey of businesses, as they will be better placed to respond about employees' contractual arrangements. ONS announced this development in a news release published on 22 August 2013:
	http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/mro/news-release/ons-announces-additional-estimate-of-zero-hours-contracts/zhc0813.html
	The first results from this survey will be available at end April 2014. These estimates will be accompanied by an analytical article that will also incorporate LFS based estimates, in order to present a more complete view of zero hours contracts.
	As this article will provide a more comprehensive picture of the overall issue of zero hours, including statistics from both surveys, and consideration of the definitional aspects of zero hours contracts, it will be a much more robust and reliable source of the information you have requested.

Electoral Register: Newcastle Upon Tyne

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what estimate he has made of the number of eligible voters not registered to vote in Newcastle upon Tyne Central constituency.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Caron Walker, dated April 2014
	On behalf of the Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking the Minister for the Cabinet Office what estimate has been made of the number of eligible voters not registered to vote in Newcastle upon Tyne constituency (194733).
	ONS does not have the data required to answer your question. Data are collected on the number of people who are registered to vote in the UK, but no data are collected on the number of people who are eligible to vote but who choose not to register.
	The ONS population estimates are of the resident population and will include some people who are not eligible to vote. Therefore the number of unregistered electors cannot be calculated based on the difference between the population estimate and the number of registered electors.

Local Government: ICT

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many local authorities have adopted the Government’s public service network to date.

Nick Hurd: 570 local authorities have completed compliance.

Location

Margaret Ritchie: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office 
	(1)  how many Civil Service jobs dealing primarily with reserved and excepted matters have been transferred from Northern Ireland in the last six years; and how many such jobs are planned to be so transferred in the next year;
	(2)  how many Civil Service posts were relocated from London to Northern Ireland in the last six years.

Francis Maude: Cabinet Office does not hold data centrally on the transfer of civil servants across the United Kingdom. Workforce planning is primarily the responsibility of each individual Department to determine.

Mobile Phones

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office 
	(1)  what steps he is taking to reduce the costs of central Government mobile telephone contracts;
	(2)  what guidance his Department has issued on the mobile telephone contracts for telephones used by Government employees;
	(3)  what proportion of Government (a) spending on mobile telephony services and (b) contracts for mobile telephony services are with each mobile telephone provider.

Nick Hurd: The Cabinet Office has not issued specific guidance on this matter, although the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) issues various procurement guidance to Government.
	The Cabinet Office does not hold complete data for all telephony spend, but departmental data will be available via Contracts Finder.
	CCS contracts are awarded following open competition on the basis of best value for money.

Pensioners: Mortgages

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what estimate he has made of the proportion of pensioners who pay mortgages.

Steve Webb: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.
	According to the latest English Housing Survey there are approximately 6 million households in England, where the household reference person is aged 65 or over. Of these, around 326,000 are owner occupiers who are buying their home with a mortgage.
	Based on these figures, the Department estimates that approximately 5% of pensioner households are likely to be paying a mortgage.
	Source:
	English Housing Survey Headline Report 2012-13; Table 1, Demographic and economic characteristics by tenure.
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/284648/English_Housing_Survey_ Headline_Report_2012-13.pdf

Social Networking

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office 
	(1)  what guidelines are in place for (a) civil servants and (b) special advisers on the use of social media;
	(2)  whether the Civil Service Code applies to activities carried out on social media.

Francis Maude: Guidance for Departments on the use of social media is available at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-media-guidance-for-civil-servants
	Copies are also available in the Library of the House.

TREASURY

Air Passenger Duty: Northern Ireland

Alasdair McDonnell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  what assessment he has made of the effect on the Northern Ireland economy of the Irish Government's decision to remove airport passenger duty;
	(2)  what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the rate of airport passenger duty on levels of tourism in Northern Ireland.

Nicky Morgan: The rates of air passenger duty in bands B, C and D for all direct long-haul flights departing from Northern Ireland airports have been devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly Government. This recognises Northern Ireland's unique circumstances. The Assembly Government has set these rates to zero.
	Budget 2014 announced reform of air passenger duty with the abolition of bands C and D from 1 April 2015. This will eliminate the two highest rates of air passenger duty charged on connected long-haul flights departing from Northern Ireland, cutting tax for passengers travelling to China, India, South Asia and the Caribbean.
	The reform tackles the unfairness of the present system of air passenger duty created by the previous Government. Beyond this reform, air passenger duty remains a relatively fair and efficient tax, and continues to make an important contribution to deficit reduction. The Chancellor keeps all taxes under review as part of the ongoing Budget process.

Cathedrals: Repairs and Maintenance

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of cathedrals that will benefit from the grant scheme for repairs announced in the 2014 Budget.

Edward Vaizey: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
	Up to 42 Anglican and 18 Roman Catholic cathedrals stand to benefit from the new grant scheme for cathedral repairs announced in the Budget.

Children: Day Care

Andrew Percy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of families eligible for tax-free childcare in Brigg and Goole constituency.

Nicky Morgan: The information requested is not available.

Coinage

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his answer of 31 March 2014, Official Report, column 469W, on coinage, if he will place in the Library any analysis undertaken by his Department on the projected costs to industry of the introduction of the new £1 coin.

Nicky Morgan: The Budget announced that the existing £1 coin will be replaced with a more modern and secure design. After 30 years in circulation, the current coin has become vulnerable to counterfeiting.
	There will be a public consultation this summer which will focus on how to manage impacts on industry and other affected parties. We will work with industry to identify and scope any costs arising from introduction of the new coin, and are consulting on the detail of the design and specification to ensure that costs are minimised.
	More details of the consultation process will be published in due course.

Employee Ownership

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  what total value has been claimed in tax deductions for issuance of shares to employees under the Government's Shares for Rights Scheme to date;
	(2)  what the total value is of shares bought under the Government's Shares for Rights Scheme to date.

David Gauke: The employee shareholder employment status has been available since 1 September 2013. Details of the total value of shares awarded under employee shareholder agreements since that date, and of the Exchequer impact of the tax rules for these shares, are not available.

Enterprise Investment Scheme

John Woodcock: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to consult on changes to the eligibility for the Enterprise Investment Scheme announced in Budget 2014; and whether owners and promoters of community energy schemes will be included in the stakeholders consulted.

David Gauke: The Budget announcement ensures that the venture capital schemes continue to support smaller and growing businesses in a targeted and effective way.
	The Government consulted extensively with stakeholders when similar action was taken to exclude companies benefitting from feed-in-tariffs in 2011.
	Further information on the detail of the change to exclude companies benefiting from renewables obligation certificates and/or the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme from the venture capital schemes will be published shortly, ahead of the publication of legislation.

Equitable Life Assurance Society: Compensation

Graham Brady: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many appeals made to the Equitable Life Payment Scheme have taken (a) more than one month, (b) more than three months, (c) more than six months and (d) over a year to decide.

Sajid Javid: This data is not recorded. The Independent Review Panel aims to reach a decision within three months. However, the amount of time taken to process an appeal depends upon the complexity of the case, the quality of the information supplied by the policyholder and the need for investigation with other parties.

Foreign Workers

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will take steps to compel companies that post workers to the UK to retain copies of employment contracts and pay slips in the UK.

David Gauke: There are no plans to compel foreign companies posting employees to the UK to retain employment contracts and pay slips here. However, there are already obligations for record keeping imposed under EU law if the posted worker is from a European economic area (EEA) country and is liable to UK national insurance contributions. When workers are posted to the UK from a country outside the EEA, obligations to retain tax and national insurance-related records fall on the client company in the UK.

Income Tax

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the number of people currently paying income tax and national insurance contributions (NICs) who would not be doing so if the personal allowance threshold were lifted in 2014-15 to £12,000 per annum and the threshold at which NICs are paid were raised to the same level.

David Gauke: I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 10 February 2014, Official Report, column 439W.

Inheritance Tax: Agriculture

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what account is taken of historic economic activity and future agricultural production in agricultural relief for inheritance tax.

David Gauke: Agricultural property relief is based on the value of agricultural property including land; crops and buildings used for agricultural purposes and is given at a rate of 50% or 100% of that value depending on the circumstance.
	If historic economic activity and future agricultural production affect the value of agricultural property they will be reflected in the amount of the relief available.

Inheritance Tax: Agriculture

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent guidance he has issued on criteria for agricultural relief for inheritance tax.

David Gauke: Information about agricultural property relief, including the criteria for the relief, can be found on the HMRC website:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/inheritancetax/pass-money-property/agricultural-relief.htm

Inheritance Tax: Agriculture

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to amend the criteria for agricultural relief for inheritance tax; and if he will make a statement.

David Gauke: There are currently no plans to amend the criteria for agricultural property relief for inheritance tax.
	However, all taxes are kept under review.

Mortgages: Government Assistance

Hilary Benn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many households have used the (a) the Help to Buy (Equity Loan) and (b) Help to Buy (Mortgage Guarantee) scheme; and how many households he originally expected to use each scheme.

Sajid Javid: The information requested is as follows:
	(a) In the 11 months to the end of February 2014, over 28,000 households have bought or reserved a new build home through the Help to Buy: equity loan scheme. In its first three years, from 2013-14 to 2015-16, the scheme is expected to help at least 74,000 home buyers purchase a new build home.
	(b) On 23 March, the Prime Minister announced that there have been 2,572 mortgages supported by the Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee scheme in its first four months. The contingent liability that the Government has set aside for the Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee scheme is large enough to support £130 billion of mortgages.

Mortgages: Government Assistance

David Morris: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will extend the equity loan for new homes in the Help to Buy scheme to older properties.

Sajid Javid: The Help to Buy: equity loan scheme was set up to help creditworthy households buy a home and to increase the supply of housing. The scheme is therefore only available for new build homes. The mortgage guarantee scheme is available for both new build and existing properties.

Mortgages: Government Assistance

Hilary Benn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many applicants to the Help to Buy (Mortgage Guarantee) scheme to date were not born in England (a) in absolute terms and (b) as a percentage of overall applicants.

Sajid Javid: The Government is collecting data on the mortgages supported by the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme and will report in due course.

Natural Resources

Alan Whitehead: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to implement the recommendations made by the Natural Capital Committee in its Second state of natural capital report which are relevant to his Department.

Nicky Morgan: The NCC’s report contains a range of recommendations which the Government needs to consider collectively. The Government will respond to the NCC’s report once it has fully considered it.

Occupational Pensions

Gregg McClymont: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of (a) the number of people in private sector defined benefit pension schemes and (b) the number of such people he expects to switch to defined contribution pension schemes as a result of planned changes to pensions announced in the 2014 Budget Statement.

David Gauke: The information is as follows:
	(a) Information on the number of people in private sector defined benefit schemes is available from the ONS Occupational Pensions Scheme Survey at the following location
	http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/fi/occupational-pension-schemes-survey/2012/stb-opss-2012.html
	(b) The Government published a consultation, “Freedom and Choice in Pensions” alongside Budget 2014, where it is considering how the planned changes should apply in the case of defined benefit schemes.

Overseas Residence: Landlords

Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  what the value was of penalties issued to overseas landlords who failed to submit the tax returns issued to them in each of the tax years (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11, (c) 2011-12 and (d) 2012-13;
	(2)  what proportion by value was paid of the penalties that were issued to overseas landlords who failed to submit the tax returns issued to them in each of the tax years (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11, (c) 2011-12 and (d) 2012-13;
	(3)  how much rental income was declared by overseas landlords in each of the tax years (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11, (c) 2011-12 and (d) 2012-13;
	(4)  what the total value of tax self-assessed by overseas landlords was; and what proportion was paid in each of the tax years (i) 2009-10, (ii) 2010-11, (iii) 2011-12 and (iv) 2012-13;
	(5)  how many overseas landlords had their application to have rent paid to them without tax being deducted at source (a) approved and (b) declined in each of the tax years (i) 2009-10, (ii) 2010-11, (iii) 2011-12 and (iv) 2012-13;
	(6)  what the five most common reasons were for declining an application from an overseas landlord to have rent paid to them without tax being deducted at source in each of the tax years (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11, (c) 2011-12 and (d) 2012-13;
	(7)  how many overseas landlords had tax returns issued to them in each of the tax years (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11, (c) 2011-12 and (d) 2012-13;
	(8)  how many overseas landlords submitted the tax returns issued to them in each of the tax years (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11, (c) 2011-12 and (d) 2012-13.

David Gauke: Overseas landlords in the UK typically operate through the non-resident landlord (NRL) scheme. Their tax liabilities and any penalties are reported and collected via the self-assessment system. The data requested under Questions 3398N, 3399N, 3400N, 3401N, 3409N and 3410N could be obtained only at a disproportionate cost.
	The number of applications for the NRL scheme, which will vary slightly from the actual number that are registered, that have been made to HMRC for the last five tax years are:
	
		
			  Number 
			 2008-09 37,400 
			 2009-10 32,600 
			 2010-11 37,477 
			 2011-12 42,693 
			 2012-13 38,385 
		
	
	Around 12% of applications for the NRL scheme are returned as they have incomplete data, the reason for which is not recorded.

Revenue and Customs: South West

Adrian Sanders: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many posts HM Revenue and Customs will relocate to the South West in the next five years.

David Gauke: HMRC is currently reviewing its workforce plans for the remainder of the 2010-13 spending review period up to 31 March 2016. HMRC does not allocate posts on a regional basis and has no plans to relocate posts to the South West from other parts of the country.

Service Charges

Gordon Henderson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will bring forward proposals to set a time limit within which property management companies will have to produce their service charge accounts.

Kris Hopkins: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government.
	Landlord and tenant legislation already provides leaseholders with the right to request a summary of service charge information, whether or not a residential lease makes provision for the way in which service charges are to be accounted for.
	This information must be provided within one month of the request, or six months of the end of the accounting period, whichever is later. Where the summary concerns more than four dwellings it must be certified by a qualified accountant as a fair summary supported by accounts, receipts and other documents.
	Leaseholders also have the right to request a summary of the charges, and to inspect the accounts, receipts and other documents supporting the summary.

Tax Collection

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make it his policy to introduce a registration scheme to monitor the flow and location of posted workers to assist tax collecting agencies in inspection and enforcement.

David Gauke: There is no intention to introduce a registration scheme for posted workers coming to the UK. Under its existing risk-based employer compliance activity, HM Revenue and Customs are able to identify workers posted to the UK to ensure that UK tax and national insurance legislation is being complied with.

Taxation: Golf

Liam Fox: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer with reference to the European Court of Justice ruling on the Bridport and West Dorset case of 19 December 2013, what measures will be taken to ensure that the refund of VAT to member-owned golf clubs will be distributed to club members.

David Gauke: The Government is currently considering how to respond to the ruling by the European Court of Justice ruling on the Bridport and West Dorset case of 19 December 2013.

Taxation: Golf

Liam Fox: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  how much corporation tax has been paid to the Exchequer in respect of visitors fees for member-owned golf clubs since 1990;
	(2)  with reference to the rules set out in the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) manual BIM24000, whether HMRC has collected the appropriate rates of corporation tax from member-owned golf clubs; and what steps HMRC plans to take to recoup tax losses due to unlawful tax declarations by member-owned golf clubs where they have been found to have underpaid corporation tax.

David Gauke: The information requested for corporation tax paid in respect of visitors fees for member-owned golf clubs is not available.
	I refer my right hon. Friend to the reply given to my hon. Friend the Member for Tewkesbury (Mr Robertson), on 6 September 2012, Official Report, columns 396-97W. HMRC is committed to tackling people who deliberately break the rules and challenge those who bend the rules, whoever they may be. HMRC applies a risk-based approach to its compliance work, as well as carrying out random inquiries to support its understanding of the risks posed by different types of taxpayers and businesses. However, HMRC is unable to disclose any information on its activities that would risk breaching its duty of confidentiality. Therefore, I cannot comment on any action that HMRC may undertake in tackling any particular taxpayer or group of taxpayers.

TSB

Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has had with TSB Bank about the decision to close bank accounts of customers who are in order and credit but are not wanted; and if he will make a statement.

Sajid Javid: Treasury Ministers and officials meet with, and receive representations from, a wide range of organisations and individuals in the public and private sector as part of the usual policymaking process. It is not Government practice to provide details of all such representations.
	The terms and conditions that a bank offers an account on is a commercial decision for individual banks and building societies. The Government does not comment on commercial decisions.

UK Financial Investments

Jim Murphy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of review assessments are completed by each of the banks in which UK Financial Investments owns a stake; and if he will make a statement.

Sajid Javid: The PRA's approach to supervision, as described in its published Approach documents, is consistent across all firms irrespective of Government ownership. The PRA will undertake risk assessments of the material risks facing the firms it regulates, in line with its statutory objectives. For example, the PRA is complying with the EBA recommendation on Asset Quality Reviews (AQRs) in full.
	The EBA recommends that national authorities should assess and identify high risk asset classes in banks' credit portfolios. The EBA's recommendation sets a timeline for all national authorities, including the UK Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), to complete AQRs by no later than 31 October 2014.
	Under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 section 348, the PRA is restricted from disclosing confidential information in relation to the firms it supervises.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Location

Margaret Ritchie: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what recent discussions she held with ministerial colleagues on the relocation of central Civil Service posts to Northern Ireland.

Theresa Villiers: I have had no such discussions with ministerial colleagues.

National Crime Agency

Naomi Long: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether she considers the failure of the Northern Ireland Executive to allow the National Crime Agency to operate fully in Northern Ireland is beginning to have a significantly detrimental impact on the fight against organised crime in Northern Ireland.

Theresa Villiers: There is an increasing risk of such an impact. The National Crime Agency is committed to assisting the Police Service of Northern Ireland to tackle serious and organised crime in Northern Ireland, as far as the restrictions on its powers permit. However, its activities in devolved areas have been curtailed and the capability that the Agency has available in Northern Ireland is therefore less than that available in the rest of the UK. This is of particular concern in areas where the Police Service of Northern Ireland or other Northern Ireland agencies do not have the powers or expertise to replace NCA capabilities, such as civil asset recovery.

Politics and Government

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much her Department has spent on legacy issues in each year since 2010; and how many staff are employed on dealing with such legacy issues.

Theresa Villiers: It is not possible to provide a breakdown of spend by the Northern Ireland Office on legacy issues annually since 2010 as matters related cut across so many aspects of the Department's work.
	Within the Northern Ireland Office's Engagement Group there is a Legacy Unit which currently consists of four members of staff. This unit deals with a wide range of issues arising from Northern Ireland's troubled past, including calls for further inquiries and reviews; legal challenges brought in relation to legacy cases; applications for public interest immunity; and compensation for certain miscarriages of justice. In addition, the Legacy Unit oversees the sponsorship of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains.

Telephone Tapping

Nigel Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment she has made of the implications for security in Northern Ireland of recent reports of the taping of telephone calls made to and from police stations in the Republic of Ireland; and whether she has made representations to the Irish government on that matter.

Theresa Villiers: I meet regularly with members of the Irish Government including Justice Minister, Alan Shatter where we discuss a range of issues. This is a matter for the Irish Government, but I have received reassurance from Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore that these matters will not undermine the co-operation arrangements between An Garda Siochána and the PSNI.

Terrorism

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment she has made of dissident republican links with Al-Qaeda involving the supply of weaponry and expertise in warfare.

Theresa Villiers: I am aware of media speculation on this issue. Terrorists around the world have attempted to use online information to seek to build their capabilities in order to carry out violent attacks. Measures are in place to seek to limit access to information online which might assist in the commission of an act of terrorism, and the Government and law enforcement agencies are committed to apprehending and prosecuting those who contravene the law in this regard.

Terrorism

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee will be given access to papers previously withheld from freedom of information requests as part of its current inquiry into the administrative scheme for the on-the-runs.

Theresa Villiers: The inquiry led by Lady Justice Hallett has access to all papers that it requests or requires from my Department, in order to produce a full public account of the 'on the runs' administrative scheme.

CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT

Arts Council England

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much Arts Council England spent on consultants in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13 and (d) 2013-14.

Edward Vaizey: holding answer 2 April 2014
	The Arts Council makes decisions on consultancy spend at arm’s length from Government, although since 2010 they have been urged to reduce this spending to ensure more money goes to the frontline. The Arts Council has supplied the following information on spend on consultants in the years requested:
	
		
			 Total consultancy spend 
			  £ 
			 2010-11 3,906,052.13 
			 2011-12 1,905,168.11 
			 2012-13 1,719,254.97 
			 2013-14 684,294.53

Channel Three

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport 
	(1)  if she will review the regulations applying to Channel 3 licence holders and the business practices of their subsidiary companies;
	(2)  if she will review the Channel 3 licence arrangements to prevent licence holders promoting other businesses owned by them through online and broadcast media platforms.

Edward Vaizey: The Government has no plans to review the licensing arrangements for Channel 3. The regulator, Ofcom, has recently renewed the Channel 3 licences for 10 years, from 1 Jan 2015. No prohibitions on ownership of commercial websites or radio stations have been introduced. Ofcom's rules around cross-promotion relate only to the promotion of other broadcasting-related services.

Cultural Heritage: Exports

Harriet Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the total value was of items covered by Waverley criteria where (a) a decision on the licence application was deferred and (b) the items were subsequently exported in (i) 2009-10, (ii) 2010-11, (iii) 2011-12 and (iv) 2012-13; what the percentage by value was of those items subsequently exported in each such year; how many cases there were covered by the Waverley criteria where (A) a decision on the licence application was deferred and (B) items were subsequently exported in each such year; what the percentage by number of cases was of those items subsequently exported in each such year; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Vaizey: The information requested is contained in the export of objects of cultural interest Statistical Release 2012-13. This is available on the gov.uk website at the following address:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/export-of-objects-of-cultural-interest-statistical-release-2012-13
	I will arrange for copies of the Statistical Release to be placed in the Libraries of the House.
	Further information is available on the Arts Council's website at:
	http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/supporting-museums/cultural-property/export-controls/reviewing-committee

Football

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what discussions she has had with ministerial colleagues on establishing an expert group on the way forward for football supporter club ownership.

Helen Grant: All aspects of a potential expert group on supporter ownership in football are under consideration, including suitable government representation on the group.

Gaming Machines

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment she has made of the effect of the excessive use of fixed-odds betting terminals on people with a gambling addiction.

Helen Grant: The Government is undertaking a policy review of gambling, which includes consideration of Category B2 gaming machines. This will report shortly.

Mobile Phones

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment she has made of the costs mobile telephone companies charge customers who go over their allocated data usage; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Vaizey: The UK mobile market is highly competitive and retail tariffs are not regulated. The Government has therefore not made any assessment of the costs incurred by customers for exceeding their allocated data usage. Through the Telecoms Consumer Action Plan, DCMS is working with the industry and Ofcom to ensure that all contract terms and conditions are transparent from the outset. Provided that, when the contract is signed, it is made clear when these charges will be incurred and how much they will be, it is an issue between the customer and the company concerned.

Public Appointments

Harriet Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proportion of people appointed to boards or other public bodies sponsored by her Department were (a) men and (b) women in (i) 2010-11, (ii) 2011-12, (iii) 2012-13 and (iv) 2013-14.

Helen Grant: The proportions of people appointed by DCMS to its public bodies was:
	2010-11: 42 women (41%) and 60 men (59%)
	2011-12: 34 women (33%) and 69 men (67%)
	2012-13: 32 women (35%) and 59 men (65%)
	We do not currently have complete information for 2013-14 since, in relation to recent appointments, there are some announcements that are yet to be made. However, in relation to the period April 2013 to September 2013, 14 women (36%) and 25 men (64%) were appointed.
	By way of comparison, the hon. Member might be interested to know that in 2006-07 the percentages of women and men appointed were 31% and 69% respectively.

Public Expenditure

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will set out for 2014-15 spend by functional flows to (a) museums and galleries, (b) communications, (c) libraries, (d) tourism, (e) Royal Parks, (f) equalities, (g) BBC public sector broadcasting, (h) S4C, (i) arts, (j) sports, (k) gambling and National Lottery, (l) architecture and the historic environment and (m) the creative industries, disaggregating between (i) grant-in-aid and (ii) Lottery and between (A) capital and (B) current.

Helen Grant: The information is as follows.
	
		
			 Funding Plans for 2014-15 
			 £000 
			  Centrally funded/Grant in Aid Lottery 
			 Areas of spending Resource Capital Resource Capital 
			 Museums and Galleries 291,210 26,406 — — 
			 Communications1 15,547 480,976 — — 
			 Libraries 93,052 691 — — 
			 Tourism 45,692 192 — — 
			 The Royal Parks 12,405 895 — — 
			 Equalities 16,712 400 — — 
			 BBC Licence Fee income 3,164,000 — — — 
			 54C2 6,787 — — — 
			 Arts 370,853 13,185 238,676 40,509 
			 Sport 130,515 26,129 277,568 54,937 
			 Gambling and National Lottery3 — — — — 
			 Architecture and the Historic Environment 121,044 18,198 — — 
			 Creative Industries 20,135 690 45,292 — 
			 1 Net of Spectrum Management Receipts. 2 S4C is now funded almost entirely from the BBC Licence fee receipts. 3 Expenditure by National Lottery Commission met by lottery income. Note: The table details all ‘functional flows’ funded centrally, through Grant-in-Aid or from the National Lottery.

Public Libraries

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what progress has been made on the Government's strategy to encourage the use of libraries; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Vaizey: Details of the various developments in library services in England during 2012-13, including a range of innovative approaches to the task of delivering a comprehensive and efficient service, are set out in the annual report to Parliament. The report, titled 'Report under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 for 2012/2013', was laid before the Houses of Parliament on 17 December 2013 and was published on the GOV.UK website in January 2014.

Sports

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many adults in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK have taken part in at least one sporting activity each week in each of the last five years.

Helen Grant: Participation data is from the Active People Survey which measures the number of people aged 16 and above taking part in sport in England.
	
		
			 Number 
			  Jarrow South Tyneside North East England 
			 2009 1— 40,600 733,500 14,905,200 
			 2010 1— 41,600 744,500 14,861,800 
			 2011 1— 39,200 715,000 14,758,900 
			 2012 1— 38,300 759,800 15,512,500 
			 2013 1— 37,400 740,900 15,461,900 
			 1 Sample size too small to provide figure.

Sports

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much her Department has spent on grassroots sport in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK in each of the last five years.

Helen Grant: Figures in the table for constituency, local authority and region show Sport England direct investment only. The figures in these columns do not include the money from Sport England's £493 million investment in national governing bodies of sport, or its investment in other national partners, which is channelled to all parts of England. Figures for England show a combined total for all of Sport England's investment in grassroots sport.
	
		
			 £ 
			  Jarrow South Tyneside North East England 
			 2009-10 38,604 61,666 4,900,539 261,356,000 
			 2010-11 46,828 48,352 3,883,352 255,819,000 
			 2011-12 6,880 19,280 6,050,012 261,146,000 
			 2012-13 18,412 166,902 7,413,903 328,603,000 
			 2013-14 48,400 110,409 4,596,556 1305,634,000 
			 1 Forecast not final. Final lottery income for 2013-14 will not be confirmed until the end of April.

Sports

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many people aged between 16 and 25 years old who live in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK have taken part in at least one sporting activity each week in each of the last five years.

Helen Grant: Participation data is from the Active People Survey which measures the number of people aged 16 and above taking part in sport in England.
	
		
			  Jarrow South Tyneside North East England 
			 2009 1— 1— 210,500 3,868,900 
			 2010 1— 1— 200,300 3,830,300 
			 2011 1— 1— 192,800 3,787,700 
			 2012 1— 1— 198,600 3,794,700 
			 2013 1— 1— 208,500 3,743,400 
			 1 Sample size too small to provide figure.

Sports

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many people in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK took part in at least one sporting activity each week in each of the last five years.

Helen Grant: Participation data is from the Active People Survey which measures the number of people aged 16 and above taking part in sport in England:
	
		
			 Number 
			  Jarrow South Tyneside North East England 
			 2009 1— 40,600 733,500 14,905,200 
			 2010 1— 41,600 744,500 14,861,800 
			 2011 1— 39,200 715,000 14,758,900 
			 2012 1— 38,300 759,800 15,512,500 
			 2013 1— 37,400 740,900 15,461,900 
			 1 Sample size too small to provide figure. 
		
	
	Child participation data is taken from the Taking Part survey which measures the number of children aged between five and 15 taking part in sport in England. The percentage participation among children aged five to 15 in sport over the past five years for the UK was:
	
		
			 Percentage 
			  Jarrow South Tyneside North East England 
			 2008-09 1— 1— 1— 81.4 
			 2009-10 1— 1— 1— 82.7 
			 2010-11 1— 1— 1— 79.6 
			 2011-12 1— 1— 1— 77.7 
			 2012-13 1— 1— 1— 77.4 
			 1 Sample size too small to provide figure. Note: Please note that these figures cannot be combined into one overall participation figure as the data is taken from two different surveys.

Sports: Children

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many children in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK have taken part in at least one sporting activity each week in each of the last five years.

Helen Grant: Taking Part Survey data is available for children who took part in sport within one week of the survey date. The percentage participation among children aged 5-15 in sport over the past five years for the UK was:
	
		
			 Percentage 
			  Jarrow South Tyneside North East England 
			 2008-09 1— 1— 1— 81.4 
			 2009-10 1— 1— 1— 82.7 
			 2010-11 1— 1— 1— 79.6 
			 2011-12 1— 1— 1— 77.7 
			 2012-13 1— 1— 1— 77.4 
			 1 Sample size too small to provide figure.

Telecommunications

Guy Opperman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps she has taken to make it easier for people to switch between telephone and broadband suppliers.

Edward Vaizey: Research by Ofcom shows that at present switching telephone and broadband suppliers usually goes smoothly for consumers, but we are in favour of it being as simple as possible. I recognise that switching processes work better for consumers when only one call needs to be made, to the company the consumer wishes to switch to, for the switch to happen and there is no need for consumers to contact their existing provider (so called ‘gaining-provider led' switching-GPL). Working with Ofcom, we will do everything we canto move towards a system of GPL switching across the board.

HEALTH

Abortion

David Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance he has issued on reporting to the police registered medical practitioners who do not return complete HSA4 forms.

Jane Ellison: The chief medical officer (CMO) wrote to all medical practitioners in November 2013 reminding them of their duties under the Abortion Act and of the legal requirement to notify the CMO, through Form HSA4, of every completed abortion they have performed within 14 days of the procedure.

Abortion

David Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many HSA4 forms are pending completion since 2008, broken down by each month in which they were submitted.

Jane Ellison: The information is not available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Abortion

Jim Dobbin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many foetuses showed signs of life following an attempted termination in each year for which records are available; and how many such foetuses were registered as live births.

Jane Ellison: The Government do not collect this data.

Air Pollution: Halton

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate his Department has made of the number of deaths attributable to long-term exposure to particulate air pollution in Halton constituency in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison: No estimates of the number of deaths attributable to long-term exposure to particulate air pollution in parliamentary constituencies have been made by the Department.
	Estimates of the fraction of mortality in English local authority areas in 2010 and 2011 attributable to long-term exposure to particulate air pollution arising from human activities are published by Public Health England as one of the indicators in the Department’s Public Health Outcomes Framework. For Halton unitary authority, these figures are approximately 5.5% for 2010 and 4.9% for 2011.

Breast Cancer

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy that radiotherapy should be routinely made available as a treatment to reduce female breast cancer.

Jane Ellison: Women who are diagnosed with breast cancer are routinely given radiotherapy as a form of treatment where this is deemed clinically appropriate. There are no plans to routinely provide radiotherapy to all women as a preventive measure to help reduce the incidence of breast cancer.

Cancer

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of reports that carrots can reduce cancer.

Jane Ellison: Public Health England is aware of a recently published study which reports that the consumption of carrots is associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer. Government recommends people eat at least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables a day and carrots can be included as part of this. The variety message is important as different fruit and vegetables contain different nutrients and components and this variety is important for overall health and wellbeing.

Cancer

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance he issues on ensuring that cancer drugs are not withheld from elderly terminally ill patients aged over 65 years old.

Norman Lamb: In December 2012, the Department worked on a project with Macmillan Cancer Support and Age UK to improve uptake of treatment in older people. That project established key principles for the delivery of age-friendly cancer services. In December 2013, NHS England published Are Older People Receiving Cancer Drugs?1, an analysis of chemotherapy uptake in older people, and that report reaffirmed these principles and set out new recommendations on improving the uptake of chemotherapy.
	Alongside this report, NHS England's National Clinical Director for Cancer launched a 'call for action' on treatment for older people. NHS England is now setting up an advisory group to identify where improvements in cancer services for older people can be made. It is also supporting an initiative to ensure that patients are better informed about the options available to them and that they are fully involved in decisions about their treatment.
	1Note:
	www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/old-people-rec-cancer-drugs.pdf

Cancer

David Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what support his Department provides to local health trusts and clinical commissioning groups to enable them to promote cancer awareness education.

Jane Ellison: From April 2013, Be Clear on Cancer (BCOC) campaign work moved to Public Health England (PHE) and the work continues to be carried out in partnership with the Department, NHS England and other relevant stakeholders including charities.
	NHS Improving Quality, as part of NHS England, works with strategic clinical networks (SCNs) to cascade information to local health systems about forthcoming BCOC campaigns and to help ensure that the national health service is prepared for campaigns. In 2013-14, NHS England made £2.3 million available to SCNs to support early diagnosis of cancer, including supporting the BCOC campaigns.
	The Department and PHE work with Cancer Research UK to develop briefing sheets for health care professionals including general practitioners (GPs); nurses; practice managers, NHS trusts, and pharmacists.
	Briefing sheets, advice on the use of the BCOC brand and collateral to support local promotion of campaigns are available from the Be Clear on Cancer website at:
	www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/spotcancerearly/naedi/beclearoncancer/current-campaigns/
	PHE develops campaign materials including leaflets and posters to support the preparation and delivery of the campaigns. These can be ordered from the Health and Social Care Publications Orderline through their website at:
	www.orderline.dh.gov.uk/ecom_dh/public/home.jsf
	or by calling 0300 123 1002.
	An on-line learning tool for GPs supported by the Department and developed by British Medical Journal (BMJ) Learning was launched in 2012 with four modules on tackling late diagnosis; risk assessment tools; cancer pathway and the role of primary care; and diagnosing osteosarcoma and brain tumours, in children. The tool offers accredited professional development and is one of a number of such resources available for GPs. The tool can be accessed via the BMJ Learning website at:
	www.learning.bmj.com/learning/home.html
	Finally, information regarding the campaigns and links to resources including on line learning tools and decision support tools are placed on NHS Choices at:
	www.nhs.uk/nhsengland/nsf/pages/naedi.aspx

Cancer

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of late diagnoses of cancer.

Jane Ellison: ‘Improving Outcomes: A Strategy for Cancer’, published in January 2011, committed more than £450 million over the four years up to 2014-15 to achieve earlier diagnosis of cancer, including funding to support direct general practitioner (GP) access to four key diagnostic tests to support the diagnosis of brain tumours, bowel, lung and ovarian cancers and to cover additional testing and treatment costs in secondary care. GPs are able to access these tests directly in cases where the two-week urgent referral pathway is not appropriate but a patient's symptoms require further investigation. The intention is that more people presenting with relevant symptoms will be tested and at an earlier stage. NHS England monitors the use of these diagnostic tests through the Diagnostic Imaging Dataset.
	The earlier diagnosis money also included central funding for Be Clear on Cancer (BCOC) campaigns, which aim to raise awareness of the symptoms of cancer and get symptomatic patients to present earlier. In partnership with the Department and NHS England (including NHS Improving Quality), Public Health England (PHE) has taken on the running of the BCOC campaigns.
	To increase awareness of cancer among GPs, in 2012 an online learning tool for GPs supported by the Department and developed by British Medical Journal (BMJ) Learning was launched with four modules on tackling late diagnosis: risk assessment tools; cancer pathway and the role of primary care; and diagnosing osteosarcoma and brain tumours in children. The tool offers accredited professional development and is one of a number of such resources available for GPs. The tool can be accessed via the BMJ Learning website at:
	www.learning.bmj.com/learning/home.html
	The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is in the process of updating the ‘Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer’ (2005) to ensure that it reflects latest evidence and can continue to support GPs to identify patients with the symptoms of suspected cancer and urgently refer them as appropriate.
	Cancer screening is also an important way to detect .asymptomatic cancer early. We have committed more than £170 million over this spending review period to expand and improve our cancer screening programmes, including £60 million to roll-out Bowel Scope Screening as part of the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme for men and women aged 55. Bowel Scope Screening is estimated to save 3,000 lives a year when fully rolled out in 2016.
	Finally, the NHS Outcomes Framework (2014-15), Public Health Outcomes Framework (2013-16) and the Clinical Commissioning Group Outcomes Indicator Set (2014-15) include cancer indicators to help the NHS England and PHE improve outcomes and assess progress in tackling early diagnosis.

Cancer

Nicholas Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department has taken to ensure that the views and experiences of cancer patients are used to inform the ratings of the Care Quality Commission’s hospital inspection programme.

Norman Lamb: The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 all providers of regulated activities have to register with CQC and meet a set of requirements for safety and quality.
	The CQC has made a commitment to listen better to the views and experiences of people who use services. It has introduced new inspection teams which are significantly bigger and include professional and clinical staff and other experts, including trained members of the public who CQC call Experts by Experience.
	The treatment of cancer patients forms part of several of the main service areas which CQC focuses on when rating a hospital, and their views and experiences will contribute to ratings. In addition, results from the national cancer patient survey contribute to the assessment of care within a trust. Information from a number of peer review and accreditation programmes, including the national cancer peer review programme, will also be taken into account in determining future ratings.

Cancer

Nicholas Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 8 July 2013, Official Report, column 86W, on cancer, what the (a) timescales and (b) terms of reference are of the review on the National Cancer Patient Experience Survey.

Jane Ellison: The questionnaire for the latest Cancer Patient Experience Survey (CPES) is currently out with patients and NHS England will publish the results later in the year.
	NHS England is planning to undertake a comprehensive review of its programme of insight and feedback to ensure that it meets the insight needs of the national health service as effectively as possible and ensure that it captures the best information on patient experience.
	The scope of the review is not confined to surveys, and extends to how it can most effectively exploit the full range of insight methodologies and techniques, including:
	surveys;
	the Friends and Family Test;
	patient stories;
	focus groups and in-depth interviews;
	engagement and consultations;
	social media;
	observational work; and
	peer research.
	NHS England is in the process of establishing the terms of reference and steering group for the review.
	The development of the CPES is overseen by the Cancer Patient Experience Advisory Group, which is run by NHS England, and has members from across a range of cancer services, charities and experts.

Care Bill (HL)

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 19 March 2014, Official Report, column 611W, on the Care Bill, when that committee first met; and if he will place in the Library a copy of the agenda and supporting papers of each meeting of that committee.

Jane Ellison: We are in discussion with the right hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Burstow) to discuss the terms of reference for the committee and expect that further information will be available in due course.

Congenital Abnormalities

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to reduce the number of pregnancies affected by neural tube defects; and what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of mandatory fortification of wheat flour with folic acid for this purpose.

Jane Ellison: Since the 1990s, the Department has advised women who can become pregnant to take folic acid supplements before conception and for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and to increase their intake of folate rich foods. This advice is promoted as strongly as possible through all the channels we use to communicate with women and health professionals. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance ensures health professionals are equipped with comprehensive advice on folic acid and action to take with women who may become pregnant.
	The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition assessed the risks and benefits of mandatory fortification of flour in 2006 and 2009. In the light of this and more recent evidence, we will be making a decision on how to proceed by Easter and will communicate it as soon as possible thereafter.

Contraceptives: Young People

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will take steps to ensure that parents have some say in whether their teenage children are taking the morning-after pill.

Jane Ellison: Following a Court judgment in 1985, health care professionals are able to supply all forms of contraception, including emergency contraception, to young people under the age of 16 without their parents’ knowledge or consent if they are satisfied that the young person fully understands the treatment and its risks and benefits. However, health care professionals must always try to persuade the young person to involve their parents.

Dental Services

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will collect data by constituency on the number of people registered with a dentist.

Daniel Poulter: 1.4 million more people have seen a dentist since May 2010, with nearly 30 million people seeing a dentist in a two-year period in the national health service.
	Information is not available on the number of patients registered with an NHS dentist. Since the new contractual system started in 2006, patients do not register with an NHS dentist to receive NHS care. The closest equivalent measure to ‘registration’ is the number of patients receiving NHS dental services (patients seen) over a 24-month period. This information is available at regional, area team, clinical commissioning group and local authority levels for England. There are no plans to make this data available by constituency.
	The number of patients seen in the 24-month periods ending 31 December 2013 and the numbers expressed as a percentage of the population are available in annex 2 of the “NHS Dental Statistics for England, 2013-14, quarter 2” report.
	This report has been placed in the Library and is also available online at:
	www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB13531

Diabetes

Adrian Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of the relationship between eating disorders and type 1 diabetes.

Norman Lamb: The Department has not undertaken a specific assessment of the relationship between eating disorders and type 1 diabetes, however, we are aware of the increased risk of eating disorders for people with diabetes and this is something that the NHS England's Eating Disorders Clinical Reference Group (CRG) will consider.
	NHS England has a CRG specific to specialised services for eating disorders. The CRG has developed a national service specification which covers intensive treatments (inpatient and intensive day-patients) and some outreach/outpatient work for adults with very severe and intractable eating disorders. It does not cover community eating disorder services commissioned by clinical commissioning groups. The aims of the service are to:
	limit the physical and psychiatric morbidity, social disability and mortality levels caused by eating disorders;
	effectively treat people with very complex eating disorders and/or severe morbidity; and
	minimise the length of time between referral and admission to the inpatient service.

Diabetes: Dementia

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research he has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the potential connection between diabetes and dementia.

Daniel Poulter: There are significant clinical and causative links between diabetes and dementia. The Department has not commissioned specific research on these links, but the Department's National Institute for Health Research has funded research infrastructure that has contributed to evidence in this area, for example findings on the risk of developing dementia in people with diabetes and mild cognitive impairment published in The British Journal of Psychiatry in 2010.
	The rate of dementia in people with diabetes is at least twice the national average. Evidence shows that risk factors that increase the chance of developing vascular diseases like diabetes-such as obesity, smoking, drinking and inactivity-also increase the chance of developing dementia.
	Public Health England (PHE) has published a leaflet to accompany the NHS Health Check that identifies actions that may help reduce the risk of dementia. This was developed jointly with NHS England, Alzheimer's Society, and a range of partners. The leaflet is available at:
	www.healthcheck.nhs.uk/commissioners_and_healthcare_ professionals/national_resources/dementia_resources/
	Building on this in January, PHE hosted an event jointly with the UK Health Forum: "Promoting Brain Health: Developing a prevention agenda linking dementia and non-communicable diseases". The event brought together a range of leading academic and medical professionals with the aim of developing an integrated agenda for the prevention of dementia and non-communicable diseases. The importance of healthy lifestyle behaviours was a strong focus of the discussion. A resulting consensus statement will be published shortly, making recommendations for strengthening policy and research in this area.

Epilepsy

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what representations his Department received before the removal of pre-conception counselling for women taking anti-epilepsy medications from the Quality Outcomes Framework;
	(2)  what assessment his Department has made of the risks of removing pre-conception counselling for women taking anti-epilepsy medications from the Quality Outcomes Framework.

Daniel Poulter: Senior NHS England clinicians and representatives of the British Medical Association reviewed and agreed all the proposed changes to the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) taking into account the views of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Public Health England.
	The removal of QOF indicators will not mean that general practitioners (GPs) will no longer tackle important health issues such as pre-conception counselling for women taking anti-epilepsy medication. Rather, the aim is that reducing QOF will help free up time to enable GPs to spend more time on providing more proactive co-ordinated and individual care for their patients, based on their clinical judgment.
	Since 1 January 2014, Ministers have not had any meetings to specifically discuss the removal of pre-conception counselling for women taking anti-epilepsy medications from the QOF.

Exercise

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  how many children in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK exercised for at least 30 minutes a week in each of the last five years;
	(2)  how many adults in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK exercised for at least 30 minutes a week in each of the last five years;
	(3)  how many people aged between 16 to 25 years old who live in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK exercised for at least 30 minutes a week in each of the last five years;
	(4)  how many people in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK exercised for at least 30 minutes a week in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison: Public Health England is only able to supply data for the period January 2012 to January 2013. Data are not available by constituency. The data presented in table 1 are for selected local authority (LA) areas in the North East Region.
	The data presented in table 2 are for England only. Data are not available for children and data on specific age groups is only available at a national level.
	Table 1 presents data from the Active People Survey (APS). The data was collected between January 2012 to January 2013, ie APS6 Quarter 2 to APS7 Quarter 1. In that period 151,912 adults were surveyed. The APS measures the proportion of adults (aged 16 and over) participating in sport and/or undertaking some form of physical activity at moderate intensity (or higher).
	
		
			 Table 1 
			 Percentage 
			 LA <30 minutes >=30 minutes 
			 Gateshead 33.6 66.4 
			 Newcastle upon Tyne 25.6 74.4 
			 North Tyneside 27.3 72.7 
			 South Tyneside 33.5 66.5 
			 Sunderland 37.0 63.0 
			    
			 North East Region 30.1 69.9 
			 National 28.5 71.5 
		
	
	The figures provided are row percentages. The row percentages show the percentage of people in a category and is weighted by: age by gender, ethnicity, household size, working status within gender and National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC). The row percentages are weighted to adjust the results so that they are representative of the whole population at LA, County Sport Partnership, regional and national level.
	South Tyneside has a lower proportion of people aged 16 and over participating in sport and/or undertaking some, form of physical activity at moderate intensity (or higher), than the percentage for the North East and nationally.
	Table 2 relating to exercise in age bands are only available at a national level in the age band presented in the table.
	
		
			 Table 2 
			 Percentage 
			 Age bands <30 minutes >=30 minutes 
			 16-18 16.7 83.3 
			 19-34 20.2 79.8 
			 35-54 24.2 75.8 
			 55-64 31.5 68.5 
			 65+ 47.6 52.4 
			 Source: www.noo.org.uk/data_sources/physical_activity/activepeople 
		
	
	Additional information on other indicators relating to participation in sport are available from
	http://activepeople.sportengland.org/

General Practitioners: North West

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the ratio of GPs to patients is in each clinical commissioning group area in (a) Halton constituency and (b) Merseyside.

Daniel Poulter: Data is not available in the format requested. Data on the number of patients per general practitioner (GP) is available at clinical commissioning group (CCG) level.
	The following table shows GP registered patients per headcount GP (excluding registrars and retainers) in Merseyside as at 30 September 2013.
	
		
			  All GPs (excluding registrars and retainers) headcount All GP registered patients Patients per headcount GP (excluding registrars and retainers) 
			 England 35,561 56,007,348 1,575 
			 Merseyside Area Team 836 1,257,011 1,504 
			 NHS Halton CCG 74 128,775 1,740 
			 NHS Knowsley CCG 111 160,927 1,450 
			 NHS Liverpool CCG 369 496,522 1,346 
			 NHS South Sefton CCG 91 155,073 1,704 
			 NHS Southport and Formby CCG 78 122,157 1,566 
			 NHS St Helens CCG 122 193,557 1,587 
			 Note: Halton constituency does not necessarily map to Halton CCG area. Source: The Health and Social Care Information Centre General and Personal Medical Services Statistics.

Haematological Cancer

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor will be available on the NHS for the treatment of lymphoma blood cancer.

Norman Lamb: We understand that a marketing authorisation application for the Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor Imbruvica (ibrutinib) was submitted to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for review in November 2013. The standard timeline for assessment of an application by EMA is a maximum of 210 days, not including any time required by the company to respond to questions raised during the procedure. Following the EMA's opinion on the marketing authorisation application, the European Commission will issue a decision on whether the application is approved. If approved, it would be for the manufacturer to determine whether and when to launch the product in the United Kingdom.
	A hospital doctor can arrange for the supply of any drug or other substance, even one not normally available on national health service prescription, provided the patient's commissioner agrees to supply it at NHS expense. The doctor would, in those circumstances, have to retain clinical responsibility for the patient while prescribing the drug in question.

Health and Social Care Act 2012

Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment was made of the compliance of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 with human rights legislation.

Norman Lamb: Detailed analysis of the impact on Human Rights was outlined in paragraphs 1532 to 1598 of the Explanatory Notes which accompanied the 2012 Act when it went to the Lords. There was also engagement with the Joint Committee on Human Rights.
	The document is available in the Library. Details can be found at the following link:
	www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2010-2012/0092/en/12092en.pdf

Heart Diseases

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many keyhole surgery operations for heart surgery there were in each of the last three years in each (a) region and (b) constituent part of the UK.

Jane Ellison: The following table sets out data on the number of finished consultant episodes with a main or secondary procedure performed on the heart using a minimal access approach or performed percutaneous transluminally using image control by strategic health authority of treatment for the years 2010-11 to 2012-13.
	Data are held for England only.
	
		
			 Count of finished consultant episodes (FCEs)1 with a main or secondary procedure2 performed on the heart using a minimal access approach or performed percutaneous transluminally using image control3 by strategic health authority of treatment for the years 2010-11 to 2012-134 
			 Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector 
			  SHA of treatment 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 
			 Q30 North East Strategic Health Authority 16,564 17,118 16,232 
			 Q31 North West Strategic Health Authority 36,771 37,968 39,113 
			 Q32 Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority 27,640 27,545 27,970 
			 Q33 East Midlands Strategic Health Authority 18,226 19,671 20,825 
			 Q34 West Midlands Strategic Health Authority 29,459 30,179 31,061 
			 Q35 East of England Strategic Health Authority 29,183 31,429 31,038 
			 Q36 London Strategic Health Authority 50,869 53,556 52,887 
			 Q37 South East Coast Strategic Health Authority 23,132 24,733 26,342 
			 Q38 South Central Strategic Health Authority 19,655 19,608 19,173 
			 Q39 South West Strategic Health Authority 32,415 34,402 35,429 
			  Total 283,914 296,209 300,070 
			 1Finished Consultant Episode (FCE) A finished consultant episode (FCE) is a continuous period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one health care provider. FCEs are counted against the year in which they end. Figures do not represent the number of different patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the same stay in hospital or in different stays in the same year. 2Number of episodes with a main or secondary procedure The number of episodes where the procedure (or intervention) was recorded in any of the 24 (12 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and four prior to 2002-03) procedure fields in a Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) record. A record is only included once in each count, even if the procedure is recorded in more than one procedure field of the record. Note that more procedures are carried out than episodes with a main or secondary procedure. For example, patients undergoing a 'cataract operation' would tend to have at least two procedures—removal of the faulty lens and the fitting of a new one—counted in a single episode. 3OPCS 4 Codes K01—K78 Heart Y74—Y76 Minimal access approaches (must appear immediately after a code from KO1—K78) Y79 Approach to organ through artery (must appear immediately after a code from KO1—K78) Y53 Approach to organ under image control (can appear in any procedure position following a code from KO1—K78) Y78 Arteriotomy approach to organ under image control (can appear in any procedure position following a code from KO1—K78) 4Assessing growth through time (in-patients) HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. Changes to the figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage (particularly in earlier years), improvements in coverage of independent sector activity (particularly from 2006-07) and changes in NHS practice. For example, changes in activity may be due to changes in the provision of care. Source. Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre

In Vitro Fertilisation

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  which of the mitochondrial replacement techniques under consideration that have been developed in the UK have been shown to work safely and efficiently in monkeys;
	(2)  what assessment has been made of the risks of (a) chromosomal abnormalities and (b) abnormal embryo development in embryos created through Maternal Spindle Transfer and Pronuclear Transfer;
	(3)  with reference to the debate of 12 March 2014, Official Report, column 171WH, on Mitochondrial Transfer (Three Parent Children), if he will reassess his Department's statement that there is no genomic DNA in mitochondria.

Jane Ellison: The Expert Panel reviewing the safety and efficacy of methods to avoid mitochondrial disease through assisted conception, convened by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), most recently reported on the safety and effectiveness of the maternal spindle transfer and pronuclear transfer mitochondrial donation techniques in March 2013. Its report, ‘Scientific review of the safety and efficacy of methods to avoid mitochondrial disease through assisted conception: update’, also outlined the work performed, including the work performed in animal models as well as normal and abnormal human eggs and early embryos. The report and the minutes of the panel's meetings are available on the HFEA's website at:
	www.hfea.gov.uk/6372.html
	On the basis of the available evidence, that genomic DNA is only found in the cell nucleus, the Department continues to consider that no nuclear DNA from the egg or embryo donors will be inherited by a child born as a result of the mitochondrial donation treatment techniques covered by the draft regulations currently out for public consultation.

In Vitro Fertilisation

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what estimate his Department has made of the number of lives saved annually by the new in-vitro-fertilisation techniques of Maternal Spindle Transfer and Pronuclear Transfer;
	(2)  with reference to his Department's press release, Innovative genetic treatment to prevent mitochondrial disease, of 28 June 2013, which of the two fertilised embryos used in pronuclear transfer his Department considers saved as a result of the process.

Jane Ellison: The scientists and clinicians at Newcastle university, who have been involved in developing the mitochondrial donation techniques, initially made a conservative estimate that allowing the techniques to be used in clinical practice would enable around 10 children to be born each year free of the serious mitochondrial disease that they would otherwise have. They have recently reconsidered this and estimate it may initially now be up to 20 children per year, moving towards 80 once the techniques are established in treatment across the United Kingdom. This is based on the number of women who have mitochondrial DNA mutations of child-bearing age and the assumption that they might wish to have two children.
	The purpose of these techniques is to allow a child to be born free of a serious mitochondrial disease. In the case of mitochondrial donation, the Department does not categorise one of the embryos used in the technique as having been “saved”.
	The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (as amended) does not, however, provide for or recognise a direct correlation between those human embryos that are transferred to a woman and those that are not and, consequently, perish. It would be inappropriate, therefore, to attempt to draw a direct correlation between children born free of serious mitochondrial disease as a result of mitochondrial donation and the embryos that are created to achieve that purpose but are not transferred to the patient.

Medical Records: Databases

Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 24 March 2014, Official Report, column 125W, on medical records: databases, whether private companies will be permitted to tender for involvement in extracting patient information as part of care.data.

Daniel Poulter: There is no care.data contract or tender process. Any procurements would have to comply with all applicable EU/UK law especially public sector procurement and competition law.

Medical Records: Databases

Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 28 February 2014, Official Report, column 582W, on medical records: databases, if he will provide more information on the range of uses beyond direct care to which data collected under care.data will be put; who will be responsible for deciding what use of the data is acceptable and by whom; and what auditing procedures will be in place to monitor such use.

Daniel Poulter: The data will be used for a range of purposes that will improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and equity of care. For example, commissioners will use the data to:
	ensure the highest standards of care and clinical safety are consistently met throughout the national health service and provide alerts where standards drop, allowing prompt action to take place;
	help to understand what happens to people, especially those with long term conditions, who are cared for away from hospital, and to ensure their needs are met; and
	provide the information needed to design and plan new treatments, clinics, and other health services.
	Currently, the General Practice Extraction Service Independent Advisory Group that includes members of the public and representatives from General Practice has given consideration to the care.data proposals to extract information and has recommended that the information extracted should be used to support commissioning purposes. The Independent Advisory Group will consider any proposals about widening access to the data extracted from general practitioner practices under care.data and make their recommendations if such an application is received in the future.
	New legislation currently being considered by Parliament will provide for external scrutiny by an expert advisory committee for decisions to release data which could potentially be used to identify individuals.

Medical Records: Databases

Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Health for what reasons his Department has planned the start of the care.data extraction of patient data to begin before the results of the Health and Social Care Information Centre cyber security review become available in October 2014.

Daniel Poulter: NHS England is currently engaging with a range of people including the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) to understand issues and concerns around care.data. This will last for approximately six months and will inform the final process to allow the HSCIC to begin extracting data for the care.data programme. The ongoing work being undertaken by the HSCIC will inform any future cyber security reviews and also NHS England's engagement work for the care.data programme.

Medical Records: Databases

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 31 March 2014, Official Report, column 400W, on Medical Records: Databases, if he will publish and place in the Library a copy of that report at the same time as its release to the board; and if he will ensure that the report contains a complete list of the holders of commercial re-use licences and for each such licence for what purpose the use of Health and Social Care Information Centre data was approved.

Daniel Poulter: The Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) is committed to openness and transparency around the use of health data. The report covering the data approved and released by HSCIC post 31 March 2013 includes the purpose of the data release. The report was published on 3 April 2014 and the HSCIC would welcome feedback on its contents and format. A copy of the report has been placed in the Library and is also available on the HSCIC website:
	www.hscic.gov.uk/media/13787/Register-of-approved-data-releases/pdf/Published_Version_Data_Releases _Register_v1.O.pdf

Medicine: Research

George Freeman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent on medical research by the (a) National Institute for Health Research and (b) Medical Research Council, broken down by category in each case in the latest period for which figures are available.

Daniel Poulter: Spend on research funded directly by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is categorised by Health Research Classification System (HRCS) health categories. NIHR expenditure on research infrastructure and systems where spend cannot be attributed to health categories is excluded. The following table shows NIHR spend in health categories in 2012-13.
	
		
			  £ million 
			 Blood 8.3 
			 Cancer 133.2 
			 Cardiovascular 42.7 
			 Congenital disorders 8.4 
			 Ear 4.7 
			 Eye 13.8 
			 Generic health relevance 114.1 
			 Infection 23.8 
			 Inflammatory and immune system 11.9 
			 Injuries and accidents 8.5 
			 Mental health 70.0 
			 Metabolic and endocrine 30.1 
			 Musculoskeletal 23.1 
			 N/A 71.1 
			 Neurological 34.7 
			 Oral and gastrointestinal 26.2 
			 Other 11.7 
			 Renal and urogenital 14.8 
			 Reproductive health and childbirth 26.0 
			 Respiratory 24.7 
			 Skin 8.7 
			 Stroke 26.1 
			 Total 736.6 
		
	
	The Medical Research Council (MRC) is funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. MRC expenditure in 2011-12 by HRCS health categories and HRCS research categories is shown in the following tables.
	
		
			 HRCS health categories—MRC expenditure, financial year 2011-12 
			 HRCS health categories Expenditure (£ million) 
			 Generic health relevance 162.2 
			 Infection 121.9 
			 Neurological 100.4 
			 Cancer 53.9 
			 Inflammatory and immune system 50.6 
			 Mental health 35.5 
			 Cardiovascular 25.0 
			 Metabolic and endocrine 20.4 
			 Oral and gastrointestinal 19.2 
			 Reproductive health and childbirth 15.1 
			 Respiratory 14.9 
			 Musculoskeletal 13.8 
			 Blood 12.2 
			 Other 8.8 
			 Stroke 7.9 
			 Ear 6.7 
			 Renal and urogenital 6.2 
			 Eye 6.2 
			 Congenital disorders 4.3 
			 Skin 2.5 
			 Injuries and accidents 0.2 
			 Uncoded 0.1 
			 Total 688 
			 Note: Ordered by expenditure descending. 
		
	
	
		
			 HRCS research categories—MRC expenditure, financial year 2011-12 
			 HRCS research categories Expenditure (£ million) 
			 1. Underpinning research 257.4 
			 2. Mechanisms and origins/Aetiology 258.2 
			 3. Prevention of disease and conditions, and promotion of well-being 18.9 
			 4. Detection, screening and diagnosis 30.6 
			 5. Development of treatments and therapeutic interventions 49.2 
			 6. Evaluation of treatments and therapeutic interventions 51.8 
			 7. Management of diseases and conditions 3.5 
			 8. Health and social care services research 18.3 
			 Uncoded 0.1 
			 Total 688 
			 Note: Ordered by Research Categories

Members: Correspondence

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will request NHS England to inform him when the hon. Member for Hartlepool can expect to receive a reply to his letter dated 17 December 2013, on the subject of availability and funding of cosmetic surgery for people born with cleft lip and palate.

Jane Ellison: Officials at NHS England have advised that a response to the hon. Member's letter was sent on 30 January 2014. The Office of the Chief Executive at NHS England will re-send the letter to the hon. Member.

Mental Health Services: Ethnic Groups

Paul Uppal: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what consideration he has given to improving the monitoring of black, Asian and minority ethnic patients accessing mental health services through a referral from the criminal justice system;
	(2)  what assessment his Department has made of the level of black, Asian and minority ethnic patients accessing mental health services through a referral from the criminal justice system;
	(3)  what consideration he has given to making compulsory the recording of the ethnicity of a patient when constraint and control measures are used within the NHS;
	(4)  what assessment his Department has made of the use of community treatment orders in relation to black, Asian and minority ethnic patients.

Norman Lamb: The Government is testing a new standard service specification for liaison and diversion services in England, to identify and assess the health issues of all offenders, including those from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds when they first enter the criminal justice system. Liaison and diversion assessments will help magistrates and judges ensure that offenders are diverted to the most appropriate place of treatment when sentenced, including those referred for treatment by mental health services.
	The service specification being piloted by NHS England requires providers to collect data on a range of demographic factors, including ethnicity. All trial schemes are expected to collect this data, which is passed to mental health service providers. In many cases, the service users-and therefore their ethnicities-are known to local mental health services. Later this year it will be possible to link data from Liaison and- Diversion Services to data which is already published on ethnicity of mental health service users.
	Under the Mental Health Act 1983 (the Act) the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has a duty to monitor how health services in England exercise their powers and discharge their duties in relation to patients detained in hospital under the Act, or subject to community treatment orders (CTOs) or guardianship. In monitoring health services, the CQC continues to use data collected by the Health and Social Care Information Centre for the Mental Health Minimum Data Set, which records the ethnicity of service users in respect of services provided in hospitals, outpatient clinics and in the community.
	The CQC publishes an annual report on monitoring the use of the Mental Health Act 1983. This report for 2012-13 stated that people from all black and minority ethnic groups can be overrepresented within inpatient mental health services and higher rates of people from black and minority ethnic groups are subject to the Mental Health Act 1983, particularly from some groups. This is also true of the use of CTOs.
	The reasons for such over representation remain contentious. A recent study from Warwick Medical School, “Ethnicity as a predictor of detention under the Mental Health Act”, has used data from an earlier Department-funded AMEND study (Assessing the Impact of the Mental Health Act 2007). The Warwick study concluded that, once other variables have been allowed for, the ethnicity of a patient had no impact on their likelihood of detention under the 1983 Act. A copy of the Warwick study has been placed in the Library.

Mental Illness

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the reasons for the increase in probable psychological disturbance reported in Understanding Society from 18.0 per cent in 2009-10 to 18.6 per cent in 2011-12.

Norman Lamb: No such assessment has been made.

Motor Neurone Disease

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the special neurological coordinator post within Herts Valley Clinical Commissioning Group in supporting people living with motor neurone disease.

Norman Lamb: The Department has not made any assessment of the effectiveness of the special neurological coordinator post within Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). CCGs are responsible for commissioning local services and ensuring they meet the needs of their populations, in conjunction with national health service partners and other stakeholders. The hon. Member may wish to take this matter up with Herts Valleys CCG directly.

Motor Neurone Disease

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people are affected by motor neurone disease in (a) St Albans, (b) Hertfordshire, (c) the East of England and (d) the UK; and what funds his Department has spent on tackling that disease in (i) St Albans, (ii) Hertfordshire, (iii) the East of England and (iv) the UK in each of the last three years.

Norman Lamb: Data on the number of people affected by motor neurone disease (MND) is not collected. However, it is estimated that there are about 5,000 people living with MND in the United Kingdom. On funding, while programme budgeting data provides figures for annual national health service spend on neurological services in England, spend on individual neurological conditions, such as MND, is not available as part of this.

NHS: Insolvency

Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health of 11 March 2014, Official Report, column 267, 
	(1)  regarding the setting up of a committee to advise on guidance to the Trust Special Administrator process, when he expects to publish (a) the committee’s terms of reference, (b) details of the committee’s membership and (c) details of the committee's secretariat;
	(2)  regarding the setting up of a committee to advise on guidance to the Trust Special Administrator, at which meetings between the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam and the (a) Minister for Care and Support and (b) Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health the Trust Special Administrator or the Care Bill [Lords] was discussed.

Jane Ellison: The Under-Secretary of State for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (Dr Poulter), and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, my noble Friend (Earl Howe), met the right hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Burstow), on 2 April to discuss the terms of reference for the committee. We expect that further information about the committee will be available in due course.

NHS: Re-employment

John Woodcock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff have been made redundant and subsequently re-employed by NHS organisations in Cumbria since May 2010.

Daniel Poulter: Based on available electronic staff record (ESR) data, the number of national health service staff made redundant by NHS organisations in Cumbria since May 2010 and subsequently re-employed in the NHS, up to December 2013, is estimated to be 20.
	Of these, it is estimated 15 were re-employed by an NHS organisation within Cumbria. This is a tiny proportion of the total Cumbria NHS workforce of approximately 17,400.
	Note:
	The ESR Data Warehouse is a monthly snap shot of the live ESR system. This is the Human Resources and payroll system that covers all NHS employees other than those working in general practice, two NHS foundation trusts that have chosen not to use the system, and organisations to which functions have been transferred, such as local authorities. The ESR data used in this reply is not centrally validated and its reliability is subject to local coding practice. Redundancies are identified by staff records with a reason for leaving coded as either voluntary or compulsory redundancy.

NHS: Standards

Nicholas Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  how NHS England proposes to champion the use of National Institute for Health and Care Excellence quality standards with providers and commissioners;
	(2)  what guidance he has given to NHS commissioners and providers on their National Institute for Health and Care Excellence quality standards in planning and delivering services; and how compliance with this requirement will be monitored.

Jane Ellison: The Health and Social Care Act 2012 places a duty on NHS England to have regard to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Quality Standards.
	The Department expects providers and commissioners to take into account any relevant NICE Quality Standards in commissioning, planning and delivering high quality care to meet the needs of patients.
	NHS England formally endorses Quality Standards and its National Clinical Directors actively promote them.
	Achievement of Quality Standards can be monitored through a range of mechanisms depending on the specific Quality Standard; for example, the Clinical Commissioning Group Outcome Indicator Set, the 30 national clinical audits funded by NHS England, the Best Practice Tariff, and Commissioning for Quality Improvement Initiatives arrangements. These levers are designed to drive quality improvement in the national health service using Quality Standards where appropriate.

NHS: Surveys

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department has taken to ensure that the results of the NHS Staff Survey 2013 are used to drive improvements on staff experience and patient experience.

Daniel Poulter: The NHS Staff Survey 2013 showed improvements in staff and patient experience. There was better staff engagement (3.74/5 up from 3.68 (2012)), and better patient experience with 65% of national health service staff saying that if a friend or relative needed treatment they would be happy with the standard of care provided by their organisation, up from 63% in 2012, and 66% saying the care of patients and service users is their organisation's top priority, up from 62% in 2012.
	Engaged, motivated NHS staff who feel supported by their organisation will be equipped to provide the best care for patients on a day to day basis, which will contribute to improving patient experience overall. We are working with NHS England, who run the NHS Staff Survey, and NHS Employers, to build on this encouraging progress and identify what further help NHS trusts may need to maintain the improvements they are making in staff experience, and to ensure that translates into improvements in patient experience.
	NHS Employers is supporting "Compassion in Practice" to help improve patient experience; helping trusts improve NHS staff health and wellbeing; and continuing to identify and spread good practice in staff engagement to improve patient care.
	The Friends and Family test can provide trusts with access to timely feedback on staff and patient experience to help them identify what they are doing well and where they need to make improvements.

Opiates

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how his Department measures the number of patients in treatment for opioid dependence who receive (a) a comprehensive assessment at the start of treatment and (b) a regular treatment review, including a medication review where appropriate; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison: The National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS) collects data from drug treatment services across England. The number of patients in treatment for opioid dependence in England who received a comprehensive assessment is not recorded centrally. Neither is information on medication reviews.
	However, all such treatment is expected to follow Drug Misuse and Dependence: UK Guidelines on Clinical Management which emphasises the importance of comprehensive assessment for people starting treatment for opioid dependence, and outlines what these assessments should include.
	As part of a series of initiatives to promote a dynamic treatment system, an expert group, chaired by Professor John Strang, looked at ways of improving the recovery orientation of opioid dependence treatment. Their widely disseminated and promoted report, published in July 2012, called for regular clinical reviews of all existing patients to ensure they are working to achieve abstinence from problem drugs; these reviews would involve medication review where appropriate.
	The 2012 report was entitled “Medications in Recovery re-orientating drug dependence treatment” and can be found using the following link:
	www.nta.nhs.uk/uploads/medications-in-recovery-main-report3.pdf

Opiates

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what monitoring his Department undertakes of the implementation of guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and his Department on patients in treatment for opioid dependence receiving comprehensive assessment when entering treatment; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison: National health service and local authority commissioners are legally required to fund drugs and other treatments recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and this is enshrined in the NHS Constitution as a right to NICE approved drugs.
	NICE clinical guidelines provide authoritative, evidence-based guidance on the care and treatment of patients, however they are not mandatory. They represent best practice and while we expect health care professionals and commissioners to take them fully into account in their decision-making, there is no formal process for monitoring this.

Osteoporosis

Liz Kendall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting period was for bone density (DXA) scans in each of the last five years.

Norman Lamb: The information is shown in the following table:
	
		
			 Average (median) waiting times for bone density (DXA) scans in each month, from January 2009 to January 2014 
			 Month Median waiting time (weeks) 
			 2009  
			 January 1.4 
			 February 1.6 
			 March 1.7 
			 April 1.7 
			 May 1.8 
			 June 1.6 
			 July 1.6 
			 August 1.7 
			 September 1.5 
			 October 1.6 
			 November 1.5 
			 December 2.0 
			   
			 2010  
			 January 1.5 
			 February 1.6 
			 March 1.7 
			 April 1.6 
			 May 1.7 
			 June 1.7 
			 July 1.7 
			 August 1.9 
			 September 1.6 
			 October 1.7 
			 November 1.6 
			 December 2.1 
			   
			 2011  
			 January 1.5 
			 February 1.7 
			 March 1.8 
			 April 2.2 
			 May 1.7 
			 June 1.7 
			 July 1.6 
			 August 1.9 
			 September 1.5 
			 October 1.6 
			 November 1.6 
			 December 2.2 
			   
			 2012  
			 January 1.5 
			 February 1.7 
			 March 1.9 
			 April 1.7 
			 May 1.7 
			 June 1.7 
			 July 1.8 
			 August 2.0 
		
	
	
		
			 September 1.8 
			 October 1.8 
			 November 1.6 
			 December 2.3 
			   
			 2013  
			 January 1.6 
			 February 1.8 
			 March 2.0 
			 April 1.8 
			 May 2.0 
			 June 1.8 
			 July 1.9 
			 August 2.1 
			 September 1.8 
			 October 1.9 
			 November 1.9 
			 December 2.5 
			   
			 2014  
			 January 1.8 
			 Source: Monthly diagnostic waiting times and activity, NHS England.

Osteoporosis

Liz Kendall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many bone density scanning machines were available in each region of the UK in each of the last five years.

Norman Lamb: The Department is responsible only for health services in England and data related to the number of bone density scanning machines in England is not held centrally.

Osteoporosis

Liz Kendall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  what estimate he has made of the number of people affected by osteoporosis in each of the last five years;
	(2)  how many finished hospital admission episodes with a primary or secondary diagnosis of fractures attributable to osteoporosis there were amongst (a) women under the age of 50, (b) women over the age of 50, (c) men under the age of 50 and (d) men over the age of 50 in each of the last five years;
	(3)  what estimate he has made of the cost to the NHS of treating fractures attributable to osteoporosis in each of the last five years.

Norman Lamb: Information concerning the number of people affected by osteoporosis in each of the last five years is not collected.
	Regarding the cost to the national health service of treating fractures attributable to osteoporosis, while programme budgeting data provides figures for annual NHS spend on musculoskeletal services in England, cost of treating individual musculoskeletal conditions, such as osteoporosis, is not available as part of this.
	Finally, the following table provides a count of finished admission episodes (FAEs) with a primary or secondary diagnosis of fractures attributable to osteoporosis in women and men in the age categories requested for the last five years. The table also provides data of FAEs where the gender of the patient was not recorded.
	
		
			  Women Men Unknown gender 
			  Aged under 50 Aged above 50 Age unknown Aged under 50 Aged above 50 Age unknown Aged under 50 Aged above 50 Age unknown 
			 2008-09 243 7,892 25 169 2,251 16 — 1 — 
			 2009-10 452 9,639 12 344 3,102 13 — 2 — 
			 2010-11 206 10,710 18 273 3,137 4 — — — 
			 2011-12 267 11,142 16 283 3,082 8 — 1 — 
			 2012-13 264 10,768 7 202 3,291 10 — — — 
			 ‘—’ indicates no hospital activity. Note: A finished admission episode (FAE) is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one health care provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), The Health and Social Care Information Centre.

Out-patients: Attendance

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate his Department has made of the cost of missed NHS appointments in (a) England, (b) the North West and (c) East Lancashire in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison: The Department has not made an estimate of the cost of missed national health service appointments.

Ovarian Cancer

Louise Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  which local health commissioning groups have prescribed bevacizumab for patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer who have received first and second line treatments;
	(2)  what guidance he has issued to (a) NHS England and (b) local commissioning groups about the prescription of bevacizumab for patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer who have received first and second line treatments.

Norman Lamb: We do not hold the information requested on prescribing of bevacizumab for patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer who have received first and second line treatments. NHS England has published information on the number of notifications received for each drug and indication available through the Cancer Drugs Fund. This information is available at:
	www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/pe/cdf/
	The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has appraised bevacizumab within its licensed indications for both the first and second line treatment of advanced ovarian cancer and does not recommend its use.
	Any funding decisions in the absence of positive NICE technology appraisal guidance should be made by the relevant national health service commissioner based on an assessment of the available evidence. The NHS Constitution states that patients have the right to expect local decisions on the funding of drugs and treatments “to be made rationally following a proper consideration of the evidence”. If an NHS commissioner decides not to fund a treatment, then it should explain that decision.
	Bevacizumab is available through the Cancer Drugs Fund for the first and second line treatment of advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer where certain criteria agreed by the Cancer Drugs Fund clinical panel are met.

Palliative Care

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of accident and emergency admissions made up of people approaching the end of life and who have indicated a preference to be cared for and die at home.

Norman Lamb: This data is not held centrally.
	We recognise that unnecessary emergency admissions can be avoided when people who are dying receive the right support at home and in hospices. It is the responsibility of commissioners to ensure that end of life care services provided to people in all settings is appropriate.

Patients: Travel

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) patients and (b) parents of patients who cannot afford travel costs to access medical treatment.

Jane Ellison: The Department does not collect these data, and so can make no estimate of these numbers.
	However, patients who are on low incomes or in receipt of qualifying benefits can have their travel costs reimbursed through the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme when attending secondary care appointments in the United Kingdom on referral by a doctor or dentist.
	People receiving a benefit providing entitlement to the Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme can also claim for travel costs where the health care appointment has been made for a child or other dependent.
	The Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme is part of the NHS Low Income Scheme, and was set up to provide financial assistance to those patients and in certain cases their carers who do not have a medical need for ambulance transport, but who require assistance with their travel costs.

Plastic Surgery

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people have been referred to the NHS for cosmetic surgery where an operation has not been completed by a private provider due to that provider going out of business in the last 12 months.

Daniel Poulter: This data is not collected.
	The Health and Social Care Information Centre has advised that it is not possible to identify people coming from private facilities for completion of cosmetic surgery due to the financial circumstances of the private facility.

Skin Cancer

Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the take up of innovative treatments for advanced melanoma over the last 10 years.

Norman Lamb: Information on the use of treatments for advanced melanoma which have been recommended in appraisal guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is shown in the table. Prior to 2011 NICE had not issued appraisal guidance recommending treatments for advanced melanoma.
	
		
			  2011 2012 2013 (Q1 to Q3) 
			  Number of packs Cost (£000) Number of packs Cost (£000) Number of packs Cost (£000) 
			 Ipilimumab 1,885 2,307.1 40,078 19,297.0 42,443 19735.5 
			 Vemurafenib 0 0 5,306 9,286.7 8,702 15,230.1 
			 Notes: 1. The agreement between IMS Health and the HSCIC imposes limitations on information that can be released, which includes no data being available until six months after the period to which it refers and information not being available for medicines which either have had a negative NICE appraisal or are currently undergoing a NICE appraisal. 2. A third drug, dabrafenib, is currently being appraised by NICE. Information on NHS use of this drug cannot be reported due to restrictions on the use of IMS data. 3. Volume/Quantity: Hospital dispensing information is measured in packs. This is the number of packs used and should not be added together across various preparations due to differences in dosages/pack sizes. 4. Cost (in £s): This is the cost of the medicines at NHS list price and not necessarily the price the hospital paid. There are Patient Access Schemes in place for both medicines so the figures quoted in the answer will not be what the NHS actually pays. Source: IMS HEALTH: Hospital Pharmacy Audit, supplied by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC)

Social Services

Gregg McClymont: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to exclude retirement income products other than annuities from the asset test used to assess social care funding.

Norman Lamb: The pension reforms fundamentally change the way that people can access their retirement savings, giving them much greater choice about how they support themselves during later life. This means that depending on the decision they make, people may increase or decrease their chances of being eligible for means-tested services at some point in their retirement. We are working closely with cross-government colleagues to consider the options for England, including what other products may be disregarded, and to ensure that where necessary, the relevant guidance is updated before the new flexibilities are implemented in April 2015.

Soft Drinks: Schools

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health of 1 April 2014, Official Report, column 718 on children's diet, whether the consumption of sugary drinks is banned in schools.

Jane Ellison: The school food standards severely restrict foods and drinks high in sugar. The regulations allow only healthy drinks to be provided in local authority maintained schools, academies set up prior to 2010 and academies and free schools signing their funding agreements from spring 2014. Through the school food plan, academies and free schools set up between 2010 and spring 2014 are encouraged to make a voluntary commitment to adhere to the regulations. Healthy drinks include plain water, plain low-fat milk, plain fruit juice or vegetable juice, combinations of fruit juice (at least 50%) and water, flavoured milk containing at least 90% low-fat milk and less than 5% added sugar and tea, coffee or hot chocolate with less than 5% added sugar.

South West

Adrian Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many posts in his Department will be relocated to the South West in the next five years.

Daniel Poulter: The Department has no specific plans to relocate posts to the South West in the next five years.

Tuberculosis

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people had TB in the UK in each of the last three years; and what reports he has received of a connection between TB and cats.

Jane Ellison: The great majority of cases of tuberculosis (TB) in the United Kingdom are caused by the bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and are the result of human to human transmission. A very small fraction of cases of tuberculosis are caused by Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis)—the strain which can be transmitted from animals, such as cattle to humans. The total number of cases of TB and TB infection caused by M. bovis in the UK, in the last three years is shown in the following table.
	
		
			 TB case reports and rates, and M. bovis case reports, UK, 2010-12 
			  Number of TB cases Rate per 100,000 M. bovis case reports 
			 2010 8,397 13.5 33 
			 2011 8,899 14.1 36 
			 2012 8,751 13.9 35 
			 Notes: 1. The latest available TB data are for 2012. 2. Data as at July 2013. Source: Enhanced Tuberculosis Surveillance (ETS) and Enhanced Surveillance of Mycobacterial Infections (ESMI). 
		
	
	The majority of TB caused by M. bovis were aged 65 years or over or born outside the UK, and are likely to have acquired their TB either abroad or as a result of reactivation from TB acquired before pasteurisation and widespread TB control among cattle was in place.
	TB infection caused by M. bovis in cats is uncommon in the UK. Between December 2012 and April 2013, a single veterinary practice diagnosed TB infection caused by M. bovis in nine domestic cats from separate households in Berkshire and Hampshire. Two people who had contact with the same cat were subsequently diagnosed with active TB disease caused by M. bovis.

ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Biofuels: Wheat

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the amount of British-grown wheat used in bio-fuel production.

George Eustice: There is no specific published data on the amount of wheat grown in the UK that is used for bioethanol. However, it is possible to provide an estimate. DEFRA’s statistics on “Area of Crops Grown For Bioenergy in England and the UK: 2008 - 2012” published in December 2013 include data reported under the renewable transport fuel obligation (RTFO) on the volume of bioethanol supplied to the UK road transport market with information on the feedstock and the country of origin of the feedstock. By applying appropriate conversion factors, it is possible to derive an estimate of the equivalent tonnage and crop area of wheat grown and used to produce bioethanol. These figures are outlined in the following table.
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/289168/nonfood-statsnotice2012-12mar14.pdf
	
		
			 UK wheat areas used to produce bioethanol supplied to the UK road transport market 2008-09 to 2012-13, wheat (RTFO year: 15 April n-1 to 14 April n) 
			  Volume of bioethanol (Million litres)1 Tonnage of crop implied (Thousand tonnes)2 Wheat yield (t/ha)3, 4 Area implied (t/ha) Percentage of UK total wheat area4 
			 Year 1: 15 April 2008 to 14 April 2009 0.0 0 8.3 0 — 
			 Year 2: 15 April 2009 to 14 April 2010 0.9 3 7.9 0.3 0 
			 Year 3: 15 April 2010 to 14 April 20115 211.9 581 7.7 75.4 4 
			 Year 4: 15 April 2011 to 14 April 2012 17.9 49 7.7 6.3 0 
			 Year 5: 15 April 2012 to 14 April 20136, 7 48.2 132 6.7 19.6 1 
			 1 All wheat volumes above were grown on previously cropped land. 2 Conversion: 365 litres bioethanol = 1 tonne wheat grain (at 15% moisture). Source: Department for Transport commissioned research. 3Source: DEFRA annual Cereal and Oilseed Rape Production Survey. (In 2012, the Cereal Production Survey and Oilseed Rape Production Survey were brought together to reduce costs Cereal Production Survey) UK yield at year n-1. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/structure-of-the-agricultural-industry 4Source: DEFRA June Survey of Agriculture. UK area at year n-1. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/structure-of-the-agricultural-industry 5 This includes an estimated 92 million tonnes of bioethanol produced from wheat used for markets other than for UK Road Transport. 6 Provisional. 7 Figures for 2012-13 (Year 5) are as of 15 September 2013 and are not final. 
		
	
	The RTFO data exclude UK biofuel production from UK grown wheat which may be subsequently exported, although the 2010-11 figure also includes an estimate of bioethanol produced from wheat and used for other markets or exported. Similarly, data is not available on wheat grown in the UK which is exported for possible biofuel production outside the UK.

Environment Agency

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many cases were (a) investigated for enforcement action, (b) issued and proceeded in the courts, (c) discontinued completely, (d) enforced using a lower level of action than originally envisaged and (e) ceased to be investigated in each Environment Agency area since 2010.

Dan Rogerson: The Environment Agency is unable to provide a breakdown of legal and enforcement cases in each of its geographical areas since 2010 which were (a) investigated for enforcement action, (b) issued and proceeded in the courts, (c) discontinued completely and (e) ceased to be investigated altogether, due to disproportionate cost.
	The Environment Agency can confirm that there were no cases enforced using a lower level of action than originally envisaged. At the commencement of any investigation, the Environment Agency does not know whether any enforcement action is required and, if so, what level of action is appropriate. Decisions on the level of action required are only ever made when an investigation is concluded.

Environment Agency

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many staff worked in investigation, legal and enforcement action in each geographical area of the Environment Agency in each year since 2010.

Dan Rogerson: The Environment Agency is unable to provide a breakdown of the number of staff that worked in investigation, legal and enforcement action across geographical areas since 2010 due to disproportionate cost.
	Many Environment Agency staff work on investigation, legal and enforcement action as part of their role and across more than one geographical area.

Environment Agency

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 24 March 2014, Official Report, column 31W, on the Environment Agency, when the review of existing workloads against enforcement priorities and available budgets will be completed; and if he will make a statement.

Dan Rogerson: It is expected that the process of reviewing the baseline total enforcement and legal casework to match this to the Environment Agency budget will be completed within the next six weeks.

Environment Agency

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will publish (a) the results of the review of each area of the Environment Agency's existing workloads against enforcement priorities and available budgets and (b) any decisions made about the future workload and priorities of the enforcement and legal caseload.

Dan Rogerson: The Environment Agency's process of reviewing its baseline total enforcement and legal casework to match its future budget will be used for internal work force planning and resource allocation. It is, therefore, not intended for publication.
	The announcement in the budget statement of an additional £5 million for tackling waste crime means that the Environment Agency is reviewing its planning assumptions and associated work load.

Environment Agency

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 24 March 2014, Official Report, column 31W, on the Environment Agency, whether the review of existing workloads against enforcement priorities and available budgets each area of the Environment Agency is conducting has a minimum percentage cut of workload and expenditure against which it is being assessed.

Dan Rogerson: The Environment Agency was reviewing its baseline total enforcement and legal casework to match them to its budget. The planning assumption had been that baseline funding would reduce from £24 million in 2013-14 to £20.5 million in 2014-15. As part of this, the Environment Agency was reviewing the current portfolio of enforcement cases to understand the implications of a potential 25% reduction.
	However, the announcement in the Budget statement of an additional £5 million for tackling waste crime means that the Environment Agency is reviewing its planning assumption and associated work load.

Environment Agency

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many legal and enforcement cases in each geographical area of the Environment Agency were (a) under investigation, (b) being considered for enforcement action, (c) being considered for legal action by the legal services department, (d) issued and proceeding through the courts and (e) completed on the final day of that accounting year for each of the years 2010 to 2013.

Dan Rogerson: The Environment Agency is unable to provide a breakdown of legal and enforcement cases in each of its geographical areas which were (a) under investigation, (b) being considered for enforcement action, (c) being considered for legal action by the legal services department, (d) issued and proceeding through the courts and (e) completed on the final day of that accounting year for each of the years 2010 to 2013, due to disproportionate cost.

Environment Agency

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many full-time employees in the operations and legal services departments of the Environment Agency work on (a) operations and (b) legal services.

Dan Rogerson: As of 28 February this year, the Environment Agency directly employs 8,532 full-time equivalent employees within Operations and Legal Services, shown as follows. These figures exclude employment agency staff and contractors and are rounded to whole full-time equivalent numbers.
	
		
			 Department Number of full-time equivalent employees 
			 Operations 8,377 
			 Legal Services 155 
			 Total 8,532

Environment Agency

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many requests to leave the Environment Agency under the voluntary early release scheme are from staff in the operations and legal services departments.

Dan Rogerson: As of 1 April this year, the Environment Agency had received 956 requests within its operations and legal services departments to leave the organisation under its voluntary early release scheme.

Fracking

Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 
	(1)  when he next plans to meet representatives of organisations that have made representations on the environmental effects of the shale gas industry.
	(2)  what plans he has to meet representatives of Cuadrilla and other members of the shale gas industry.

Dan Rogerson: The Secretary of State has no such planned engagements at present but always welcomes meeting a broad range of organisations to understand their needs and concerns. The UK Government is committed to the development of the shale gas industry in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.

Fracking

Joan Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will establish shale gas extraction exclusion zones in sensitive areas for wildlife and water resources.

Dan Rogerson: Each application for shale gas exploration and extraction will be assessed on its merits and operators will require planning permission from the local minerals planning authority. The Environment Agency will object to shale gas extraction infrastructure or activity within a source protection zone (SPZ) 1 (i.e. drinking water protected zone). Outside SPZ1, the agency will also object when the activity would have an unacceptable effect on groundwater based on a site specific assessment.
	In England, an environmental impact assessment is required if a particular development is located wholly or partly in a ‘sensitive area’.
	Planning authorities assess each application on a case by case basis. There is a general presumption against approving a permit in such areas.

Fracking

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will make it his policy that costs associated with the regulation and monitoring of exploration and extraction of unconventional gas are levied on industry.

Dan Rogerson: The issue of environmental licences and permits at individual shale gas sites is financed through the Environment Agency's charges. The shale gas industry remains at an early exploration stage and the Agency will keep its charges under review in light of developments. In the meantime, the Environment Agency will ensure that it allocates sufficient resources within its overall budget to regulate a safe and sustainable shale gas industry.

Fracking

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what (a) amount and (b) proportion of the budget of the Environment Agency is allocated to staff and other departmental costs associated with the regulation of hydraulic fracturing and unconventional gas in each year between 2010-11 and 2014-15.

Dan Rogerson: The Environment Agency does not keep separate records of its regulatory costs for hydraulic fracturing and unconventional gas so we cannot provide figures for previous years.
	For 2014-15 the Environment Agency has allocated £2.6 million to its work on onshore oil and gas. This is 0.39% of the Environment Agency's total revenue budget.

Fracking

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many staff of the Environment Agency are engaged in regulation of hydraulic fracturing and unconventional gas.

Dan Rogerson: The Environment Agency has set up a team of 10 national officers working full-time to develop the regulatory regime for oil and gas activities. This work covers conventional and unconventional oil and gas activities.
	This team is supported by additional technical resource from elsewhere in the organisation. The workload fluctuates and these specialists are not solely dedicated to regulating and permitting unconventional activities. It is therefore not possible to give an exact answer, but the Environment Agency estimate that approximately a further 40 staff are currently involved in this work across England.

Fracking

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the costs of the regulation and monitoring of exploration and extraction of unconventional gas (a) at each drilling site and (b) the exploration in England and Wales.

Dan Rogerson: The Environment Agency raises charges for environmental permits and licences at the individual sites it regulates in England. The costs can vary depending on the nature of the site and the permits required. The shale gas industry remains at an early exploration stage and the agency will keep its charges under review in light of developments. The annual budget the Environment Agency receives is adequate to ensure that sufficient money is allocated to costs associated with regulating the industry and for monitoring of sites during the exploration phase. As the industry develops over the next few decades appropriate funds will continue to be available to ensure the safe and sustainable exploitation of shale gas.

Hunting Act 2004

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many civil servants in his Department spent some or all of their time working on the Hunting Act 2004 in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013 and (e) 2014 to date; and what the grade is of each such staff member.

George Eustice: Since 2010, a range of civil servants in DEFRA from across all grades have had some responsibilities for working on the Hunting Act 2004 and have spent some of their time doing so. However, the amount of time they spend on this varies considerably according to levels of correspondence, interest and activity at any one time. As these officers also work on a range of other issues, no specific records are kept for how much of their time is spent working on the Hunting Act 2004.

Mondelez International

Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 24 March 2014, Official Report, column 35W, on Mondelez International, for what reason 13 March 2014 was chosen for the date of the visit to the Mondelez factory.

George Eustice: This visit was planned as a follow-up to National Apprenticeship Week. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Mr Paterson) wanted to meet young people beginning careers in the food production chain. In Birmingham he walked the production line on the factory floor with Mondelez apprentices, discussing with them and the Director of Manufacturing how a recent injection of £75 million is turning Bourneville into a world class manufacturing site. Mondelez is taking part in the Strategic Relationship Management (SRM) initiative, which is a government commitment to help companies overcome barriers to growth and investment.
	DEFRA leads on the relationship with Mondelez, which has been chosen for SRM because it makes a significant contribution to the economy. The visit timing also coincided with the Big Bang Science and Technology Fair; the Secretary of State visited the Food and Drink Federation's stand and discussed how the food and drink industry, the largest manufacturing sector in the UK, is inspiring youngsters to seek careers in the sector. The Secretary of State concluded the day with a speech to the Harper Adams Forum, a student run body at Harper Adams University. His speech highlighted the opportunities in the agriculture sector, including agri-technology following the launch of “UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies”.

Nature Conservation

Stephen Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent assessment he has made of the threat to the UK's environment from invasive alien plant species.

Dan Rogerson: The Non-Native Species Framework Strategy for Great Britain sets out our mechanism for addressing non-native species, including plants. The strategy includes a comprehensive risk assessment mechanism to assess the potential negative impacts of non-native species, including threats to the environment. To date 126 risk assessments have been completed or are in progress. Of these, 58 are plant species.

Procurement

Sheila Gilmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the (a) 20 highest and (b) 20 lowest value contracts awarded by his Department were in each financial year since 2009-10.

Dan Rogerson: The 20 highest and 20 lowest value contracts awarded by DEFRA for the respective financial years are set out in the table which will be placed in the Library of the House.
	We are unable to provide data for 2009-10 as we did not have a central contracts management system in place prior to April 2010.
	The lowest value for contracts shown here is £10,000. Any purchasing below that level is made under standard purchase order terms and conditions rather than through a specific contract. These are not recorded on our central system.
	The data does not include contracts for research and development which are not held centrally and could be included only at disproportionate cost.

Seeds

Mike Gapes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what his policy is on the proposed EU regulations on heritage seeds.

Dan Rogerson: DEFRA is negotiating for a proportionate, flexible and simplified approach to the proposed new EU legislation for Plant Reproductive Material. Our principal objectives are to make things simpler and to achieve positive outcomes for businesses and gardeners alike.

Seeds

Mike Gapes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps his Department is taking to protect a diversity of older and heritage seed varieties.

Dan Rogerson: DEFRA takes the lead for the UK’s membership to the international treaty on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and the convention on biological diversity. These require contracting parties to conserve the genetic diversity of agricultural varieties, including heritage varieties. DEFRA sponsors three genetic resource collections which maintain heritage varieties: the National Fruit Collection, the John Innes Pea Collection and the vegetable collection at Warwick university. DEFRA is planning to follow up previous research assessing, conserving and encouraging the further cultivation of locally adapted fruit and vegetable varieties (landraces).
	DEFRA took a leading role in developing simpler EU registration requirements, introduced in 2009, for heritage varieties of agricultural and vegetable species. These allow marketing on the basis of a simplified, low cost description, with proportionate controls to assure seed quality. DEFRA is now seeking further simplification in the proposed new plant reproductive material legislation currently under discussion at European level.

Seeds

Mike Gapes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what representations he has made to the European Commission on proposed regulations relating to seeds.

Dan Rogerson: DEFRA has made numerous representations to the European Commission on its proposed regulation for Plant Reproductive Material. The representations have been through correspondence, negotiation at Council Working Groups, informal discussion, and in a specially convened meeting between DEFRA, Commission officials and UK stakeholders in London in June 2013.

Unmanned Air Vehicles

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 20 March 2014, Official Report, column 697W, on unmanned air vehicles, if he will place in the Library a copy of the guidance note issued to his Department's network staff on data protection aspects of unmanned air vehicles. [R]

Dan Rogerson: I will place a copy of the guidance in the Library.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Bellwin Scheme

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether local authorities affected by flooding can claim under the Bellwin scheme for the cost of disposing of sandbags that have been contaminated with sewage.

Brandon Lewis: holding answer 3 April 2014
	Local authorities can claim the costs of removing sandbags used during the flooding emergency under the Bellwin scheme. This includes sandbags that have been contaminated with sewage.

Bus Services: Concessions

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the effects of reductions in shire county council bus subsidies on the opportunities for social interaction of elderly and disabled people.

Brandon Lewis: The Department for Transport is the lead Department on policy and funding for buses.

Children in Care

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance his Department provides on how much funding from the Local Government Finance Settlement local authorities should allocate to virtual headteachers.

Brandon Lewis: Both Revenue Support Grant and retained business rates, the two local authority funding streams directly included within the Local Government Finance Settlement, are unringfenced, therefore, authorities can use them to fund any service, provided they meet their statutory duties. It is up to authorities to decide how to set their budgets, taking into account local priorities.

Combined Authorities

Andy Sawford: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the Government Response to Lord Heseltine's report No Stone Unturned: in Pursuit of Growth, when he expects to publish a draft legislative reform order to ensure that the current legislation on combined authorities is fit for purpose.

Brandon Lewis: As I told the House on 18 March 2014, Official Report, column 704, and as the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my right hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr Pickles) indicated on 3 March 2014, Official Report, column 621, we are minded to amend legislation to allow councils that do not share the same boundaries to join a combined authority if they wish. This change can be delivered through a Legislative Reform Order, subject to statutory consultation and approval of Parliament.

Council Tax: Lancaster

David Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what reports he has received of levels of council tax set by Lancashire county council for 2014-15.

Brandon Lewis: The DCLG statistical release of 26 March 2014 showing the levels of council tax set by local authorities in England for 2014-2015 is available here and shows council tax levels down to local authority level:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/council-tax-levels-set-by-local-authorities-in-england-2014-to-2015
	The average council tax for Lancashire county council and Lancaster district council excluding parish precepts (band D) are shown as follows.
	
		
			 Average council tax band D (excluding parish precepts), 2014-15 
			  £ Percentage change on 2013-14 
			 Lancashire county council 1,107.74 1.99 
			 Lancaster district council 199.99 1.99 
			 Source: Council Tax Requirement forms

Fire Services

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the age profile of firefighters is in each fire service area. [R]

Brandon Lewis: To assist the hon. Member, a table giving the latest available information has been placed in the Library of the House.

Fire Services

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many firefighters were (a) sacked and (b) made redundant after failing the capability assessment (i) nationally, (ii) in Devon and Somerset and (iii) in London last year. [R]

Brandon Lewis: This information is not held centrally.

Fire Services

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many firefighters were redeployed (a) nationally, (b) in Devon and Somerset and (c) in London last year. [R]

Brandon Lewis: The Department collects annual counts of staff for each fire and rescue authority in England and these are published in “Fire and Rescue Operational Statistics” at
	https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fire-and-rescue-authorities-operational-statistics
	The Department does not collect information on firefighter deployment or redeployment.

ICT

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the status is of the ICT Relet Project; what costs his Department has incurred; and if he will make a statement.

Brandon Lewis: As I outlined to the right hon. Member in my answer to him of 29 January 2014, Official Report, column 600W, the programme replaces computers which are seven years old, and also upgrades the systems from Windows XP which is no longer being formally supported by Microsoft with security patches.
	The last Administration failed to get value for taxpayers' money due to poor management of IT contracts. Indeed, the Department published a contract tender in December 2009 for a desktop IT programme costing up to £160 million. This was subsequently cancelled under this Government as part of our wider reduction in departmental spending and reconfiguration of IT procurement policy.
	The fact that we have delivered a 40% saving on our IT costs is an example of how all parts of the public sector can deliver sensible savings through better procurement.

Local Government

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the number of line of business and desktop applications in local government.

Brandon Lewis: My Department has not made any estimates in this area but I do encourage local authorities to take full advantage of the efficiencies that electronic ways of working can bring.

Mary Portas

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether Mary Portas is still engaged as an adviser to the Government on high streets in England and Wales; and if he will make a statement.

Brandon Lewis: Mary Portas has helped raised the profile of British High Streets and sits on the Future High Street Forum as one of the founding members. All members play an important role and are working with Government to bring the issue of High Streets to national attention.
	This Government is committed to standing up for local shops and high streets. We have done this by cutting business rates for local shops, making sensible changes to planning rules and taking action to tackle unfair parking practices.

Mortgages: Government Assistance

David Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many first time buyers have been helped by the Government's Help to Buy scheme (a) nationally and (b) in Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency.

Kris Hopkins: This Government is committed to supporting people's aspirations to own their own home.
	In the first 11 months of the scheme, 16,465 households purchased a new build home with the support of the Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme.
	By January 2014, the time of the last quarterly statistical release, first time buyers accounted for 89% of sales nationally. In Lancaster there were 16 sales by the end of January and first-time buyers accounted for 88% of all Help to Buy: equity loan sales in the area.
	Home owners will also have been supported by the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme, which is overseen by HM Treasury.

Pensioners: Council Tax

David Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will bring forward legislative proposals to lift people over 75 years of age out of council tax.

Brandon Lewis: Low-income pensioners are already protected under the nationally set council tax support scheme for pensioners, and do not have to pay any council tax. They have saved and worked hard all their lives, and deserve security in retirement.

Social Rented Housing: Lancaster

David Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many council houses or social housing new builds have been built by Lancaster District Council, and in which areas, since 1997.

Kris Hopkins: Statistics on house building completions by tenure in each local authority district are published in the Department's live tables 253 (annual) and 253a (quarterly), which are available at the following link:
	http://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-house-building
	Taken together, the Private Registered Provider (housing association) and local authority tenures provide estimates of total social housing completions, but these figures understate total affordable supply. This is because the house building figures are categorised by the type of developer rather than the intended final tenure, leading to under recording of affordable housing, and a corresponding over recording of private enterprise figures.
	More comprehensive statistics on affordable housing completions funded by the Homes and Communities Agency since 2009-10 by local authority district are available at the following link:
	http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/housing-statistics
	These statistics include both newly built housing and acquisitions but exclude delivery of affordable housing not funded by Homes and Communities Agency programmes that are reported in local authority returns to the Department. A fuller picture of all affordable housing completions is published in the Department's live tables 1006, 1006a, 1007 and 1008, which are available at the following link:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-affordable-housing-supply
	There is no data source that provides information on affordable homes delivery at any geography smaller than local authority district.
	Over 170,000 new affordable homes have been delivered in England since April 2010 (to the end of September 2013). Our Affordable Homes Programme will lever in £19.5 billion of public and private investment over the current spending review period. Over 2015-18, we will be investing a further £23 billion in public and private funding for affordable housing.

Third Sector: Tower Hamlets

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the use of public money by the Mayor of Tower Hamlets to fund third sector organisations; and if he will make a statement.

Brandon Lewis: I refer the right hon. Member to the written ministerial statement made today by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my right hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr Pickles).

Travel

Chris Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the cost of travel within the UK was for his Department in each year since 2010; and how much of this was spent on (a) hire cars, (b) helicopter hire, (c) hotel accommodation and (d) subsistence.

Christopher Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many overseas trips, and at what total cost, his Department has made in each year since 2010; and what the costs of (a) flights, (b) internal travel, (c) hotel accommodation and (d) subsistence were of each trip.

Brandon Lewis: The information is as follows:
	Role of the Department
	Reflecting our responsibilities for local government, housing, planning and communities across England, the work of the Department involves staff travelling to different parts of the country.
	Improved procurement has reduced our average domestic hotel rate in the UK by 8% between 2009-10 and 2012-13. Moreover, domestic flights for longer journeys can avoid the need for paying for staff to stay in a hotel overnight.
	Since 2011-12, the Department accepted responsibility for some new functions outside of London, including residual functions following the closure of the Government offices for the regions and then oversight of the European Regional Development Fund following the abolition of the Regional Development Agencies. As these business functions relate to work in areas outside of London and to the European Commission, this has therefore increased our travel spend compared to the base of 2010-11. However, this is far more than offset by the very significant savings to taxpayers of the abolition of these regional bodies.
	Based on current estimates (which reflect accounting consequences from machinery of government changes) the DCLG Group is reducing its annual running costs by around 40% in real terms between 2010-11 and 2014-15. This equates to net savings of at least £532 million over this spending review period and includes savings of around £420 million from the closure of the Government offices for the regions.
	In addition to this, I note that the Regional Development Agencies were spending in the region of £246 million a year on administration (as cited in 11 March 2009, Official Report, column 592W).
	Spending data
	The following tables list spending on travel by financial year. Figures for 2009-10 are from July 2009, as this is when the Department's current approved travel agent contract commenced; those figures are therefore only for three-quarters of the financial year, and the full year is likely to be proportionately higher.
	
		
			  Overseas travel Overseas accommodation Overseas subsistence Total 
			 July 2009 to March 2010 408,621 19,847 79,574 508,042 
			 2010-11 56,304 21,759 27,798 105,861 
			 2011-12 69,463 21,204 19,946 110,613 
			 2012-13 78,474 29,224 21,911 129,609 
		
	
	
		
			  UK travel UK accommodation UK subsistence Total 
			 July 2009 to March 2010 621,028 309,260 174,888 11,105,176 
			 2011-11 434,467 199,563 81,315 715,345 
			 2011-12 980,307 162,544 71,913 1,214,764 
			 2012-13 1,030,710 166,149 74,424 1,271,283 
			 Notes: 1. Overseas subsistence costs can include accommodation, meals and travel tickets purchased locally. 2. The costs of internal travel abroad are not routinely recorded in the form requested and this information could be provided only at a disproportionate cost. 3. Data on cost per trip is not centrally held in the form requested. 4. For car hire, the data from our finance systems do not separate out expenditure for domestic and international car hire and this could be provided only at disproportionate cost. 5. For helicopter hire, our records show that the Department has incurred no expenditure on this since 2010-11. 6. Figures contained in this answer may differ from previous answers to parliamentary questions, as the data extracts have been re-run and reflect ongoing accruals and data. Delays in billing or crediting transactions can sometimes have an effect on the spend data between the financial years. 7. Taken in the whole, we have reduced overall travel spending compared to the last Administration, and delivered substantive savings for taxpayers' from the abolition of regional government in England.

Travellers: Caravan Sites

Phillip Lee: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps he is taking to ensure that the allocation of sites for Gypsies and travellers is fair; and if he will take steps to ensure that land is granted to such groups only when there is demonstrable need and a lack of current provision.

Eric Pickles: Our policy is clear that councils are responsible for assessing local needs, and identifying appropriate sites for travellers to meet those needs. We will consult shortly on proposals to amend the definition of travellers used for planning purposes to those who actually travel, and strengthen protection for the green belt.

Waste Disposal: Fires

Nick Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government 
	(1)  what the cost to the fire services was of dealing with fires at privately-owned waste management sites in the last two years;
	(2)  what the cost to the fire services was of dealing with fires at local authority-owned waste management sites in the last two years.

Brandon Lewis: This information is not held centrally. The cost to fire and rescue authorities in England of dealing with specific fires is a matter for each fire and rescue authority. The cost to fire and rescue authorities in Wales of dealing with specific fires is a devolved matter.
	Fire and rescue authorities must produce regularly, and consult on, an integrated risk management plan. The plan must identify the risks facing local communities and detail how the fire and rescue authority will allocate its resources to mitigate them effectively. People have opportunities to make their voices heard on such issues.
	There is still scope for fire and rescue authorities to make sensible savings, such as through reforms to flexible staffing and crewing arrangements, better procurement; shared services, collaboration with emergency services and other organisations on service delivery and estates, sickness management; sharing of senior staff, locally led mergers and operational collaborations, new fire-fighting technology, preventative approaches and working with local businesses.

Wind Power

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the prevalence of wind turbine developers using the Community Right to Build scheme to circumvent the local planning process.

Kris Hopkins: The Community Right to Build allows local communities to undertake small-scale, site-specific, community-led developments. It may only be used by community organisations in which local people in the relevant neighbourhood area have a majority of the voting rights and have the majority on the board of directors or governing body of the organisation, and, include different people from at least 10 different addresses within the area. This means the Community Right to Build cannot be used by property developers, including wind turbine developers, to gain planning permission for their development proposal—unless that development is something that the community wishes to see and which the community initiates.
	Proposals that require an Environmental Impact Assessment or are likely to have significant effects on a site protected under the Habitats Regulations are not eligible to use the Community Right to Build. Where proposals are eligible they will be tested by an independent examiner to see that they are appropriate in the light of national planning policy and generally conform with the strategic policies of the Local Plan for the area and any neighbourhood plans that are in force.
	The National Planning Policy Framework is very clear that local councils should design their policies to ensure the adverse impacts of renewable energy developments are addressed satisfactorily. To help implement the environmental balance expected by the Framework, we issued new planning practice guidance for renewable and low carbon energy last July. The guidance makes clear that the need for renewable energy does not automatically override environmental protections and the planning concerns of local communities.

Wind Power

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 18 March 2014, Official Report, column 533W, on wind power, 
	(1)  how his Department makes decisions on planning and recoveries without centrally holding the capacity of energy schemes;
	(2)  how much onshore wind capacity was recovered in each month in 2013.

Kris Hopkins: The main consideration in the recovery of wind turbine appeals is the potential impact of the development on the surrounding area, in the particular circumstances of each appeal and its location. The generation capacity of the appeal is not a driver in the decision on whether or not the appeal should be recovered.
	As I said in my earlier answer my Department does not centrally hold details of the generation capacity of wind turbine appeals.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL

Crown Prosecution Service

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Attorney-General what recent assessment he has made of the cyber security crime skills of staff of the Crown Prosecution Service.

Dominic Grieve: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has mandatory training for all prosecutors on cybercrime and specific training for prosecutors on offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. This supports guidance for prosecutors on the range of offences which can be committed through the use of cyber technology.
	In addition, the CPS will soon be introducing new consolidated guidance for prosecutors on cyber-offending and a new package of e-learning for prosecutors in relation to cybercrime which will cover: digital evidence gathering; online grooming; online fraud; and, social media.

Empty Property

Hilary Benn: To ask the Attorney-General what estimate he has made of the empty property business rates for the vacant properties recorded on the e-PIMS database owned by (a) the Law Officers’ Departments and (b) any Executive agencies or non-departmental public bodies of the Law Officers’ Departments in the current financial year.

Dominic Grieve: The Law Officers’ Departments have been actively reducing their estate running costs since 2010 in line with Government policy and have already made significant savings.
	The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) estate rationalisation programme began in 2009 and is set to be completed in 2016, with most of the leases on empty property having expired by then. This programme has already led to a reduction in expenditure and increased efficiency. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has paid £320,178.38 in property business rates in the current financial year on the properties which are currently recorded as vacant on the e-PIMS database as at 14 March 2014. The costs figure has been produced by DTZ who are CPS’ managing agents and has not yet been audited.
	The Treasury Solicitor’s Department owns a lease on a building which has some vacant space. This building attracts full business rates in the current financial year. This lease is due to expire in 2016. The estimated business rates for the vacant proportion of the property for 2013-14 are £59,372.71.
	The remaining Law Officers’ Departments do not have any vacant properties.

Written Questions: Government Responses

Hilary Benn: To ask the Attorney-General when he expects to answer question No. 191801 tabled by the Rt hon. Member for Leeds Central on 12 March 2014.

Dominic Grieve: I have done so today.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Developing Countries: Agriculture

Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development with reference to A UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies, how much of the £10 million provided by her Department to support the transfer of technology and new products to developing countries has been spent; and if she will make a statement.

Lynne Featherstone: No DFID funds have been spent as part of the Agri-Tech Catalyst. The selection of the projects from the first round of the Catalyst competition is ongoing. The second round of the competition closes on11 June 2014.

Development Aid

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps she is taking at the High Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development to ensure that future aid delivery via the private sector follows the Busan Principles.

Justine Greening: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to the right hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Mr Murphy) on 27 March 2014, Official Report, column 390W.

Ethiopia

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent discussions she has had with the Ethiopian government on her Department's aid funding; and what recent reports she has received of the violent expulsion of Ethiopian farmers from their land.

Lynne Featherstone: DFID ministers and senior officials continue to engage with the Government of Ethiopia on resettlement, including meetings with the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, in May 2013, November 2013 and December 2013. These discussions have included encouraging the Government of Ethiopia to follow international good practice on resettlement, implementation of a Grievance Response Mechanism, and monitoring and investigation of and action in relation to allegations of abuse.
	A summary of the findings and recommendations of multi-donor visits, including DFID, to monitor resettlement in Ethiopia will be made available in due course on the Development Assistance Group's website at:
	www.dagethiopia.org

Members: Correspondence

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development when she intends to respond to the email of 17 October 2013 sent by the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish concerning her Department's plan for spending and distributing the core funds of £375 million that were pledged in June 2013.

Lynne Featherstone: I replied to the hon. Member's correspondence on 14 February 2014.

Microfinance

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much funding her Department allocated to microfinance schemes in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12 and (c) 2012-13.

Lynne Featherstone: DFID's work on microfinance is integrated into broader financial sector development programmes that work to strengthen policy and regulation, build infrastructure and innovate new products and services that meet the needs of poor people.
	DFID monitors expenditure in terms of actual spend. Actual spend on the financial sector development portfolio totalled £50.9 million in 2010-11; £50.9 million in 2011-12 and £59.2 million in 2012-13. Cumulative spend between 2007 and 2012 totalled £282.0 million.

Offences against Children

Fiona O'Donnell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent steps she has taken to ensure that all children are protected from sexual violence in conflict zones.

Justine Greening: DFID is committed to tackling sexual violence against women and girls, with relevant programming in over 20 countries. For example, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) we have invested £60 million to build security forces capable of better protecting women and girls from sexual violence and DFID has provided £21.6 million to protect women and children from sexual violence in humanitarian emergencies in a range of countries.

Overseas Aid

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what measures are in place to ensure that aid given to foreign countries is used for the purposes intended; and what proportion of such aid not being used for those purposes would result in future aid being denied to that country.

Justine Greening: DFID has a number of controls in place focusing on monitoring and evaluation, including both internal and external audits and reports from the International Development Committee and the Independent Commission for Aid Impact.
	DFID has strong internal review processes in place to make sure projects are properly monitored and closed if they are not delivering good results and value for money.

Pakistan

Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development with which non-governmental organisations and agencies her Department is working to help residents in the desert region of Thar in Sindh Province, Pakistan.

Justine Greening: The UK Government provides funding to the World Food Programme and UNICEF who are responding to the situation in Thar.

South Sudan

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent discussions her Department has had with non-governmental agencies in South Sudan on levels of food provision.

Lynne Featherstone: The UK is extremely concerned about the deteriorating food security in South Sudan, and the urgent need to increase the provision of food supplies and livelihoods support to vulnerable populations. The eruption of conflict on 15 December 2013 has sharply exacerbated an already fragile food security situation: 3.2 million people are now at immediate risk of food insecurity and up to 7.2 million are estimated to be at some risk.
	DFID South Sudan is in regular contact with critical non-government agencies operating in the country, both UN agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), as well as with key non-government organisations, to understand and inform the humanitarian response and to monitor needs and the quality of the humanitarian operation. DFID South Sudan staff have visited displaced communities in Unity and Jonglei States in recent weeks to meet affected people, and international agencies delivering assistance, in order to better understand food security needs.

South Sudan

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps her Department is taking to prevent famine in South Sudan.

Justine Greening: The UK is the second largest donor to the Crisis Response Plan for South Sudan, and we are working with the UN and other donors to raise the prominence of the appeal, and secure new and increased commitments of funds. DFID has contributed £20.8 million of new humanitarian funding in South Sudan since December 2013. We have also allocated £17 million to support the refugee response in neighbouring countries.

Syria

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent discussions she has had with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees on the average time taken to register a Syrian refugee in neighbouring countries.

Justine Greening: My officials are in regular discussion with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at both national and regional levels regarding UNHCR's efforts to protect and assist Syrian refugees. UNHCR have devoted considerable resources to reducing the average time taken for refugee registration. In Lebanon, for example, average registration time has fallen from 80 days to 21 days.

Syria

Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what discussions her Department has had with agencies working within Syria on the work of the Syrian Recovery Trust Fund; and how the £3 million funding announced on 31 March will be spent.

Justine Greening: DFID and FCO officials have held discussions with a range of donors to the Trust Fund as well as the trustee, implementing partners and the national coalition.

ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Biofuels

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change on what date he intends to publish the Bioenergy Emissions and Counterfactual calculator.

Gregory Barker: The Department of Energy and Climate Change intends to publish the Bioenergy Emissions and Counterfactual calculator during the first half of 2014, as set out during the Commons debate on the Draft Renewables (Amendment) Order 2014, on 20 March 2014 by the Minister of State for Energy, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sevenoaks (Michael Fallon).

Biofuels

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what audit requirements are (a) in place and (b) planned for generating stations over 1Mw in size that use solid biomass or biogas.

Gregory Barker: The Renewables Obligation (Amendment) Order 2014, which came into force on 1 April 2014, requires generating stations with a total installed capacity of 1MW and above that use solid biomass or biogas to provide an annual sustainability audit report in respect of the biomass that they use. There are exceptions for landfill gas, sewage gas, municipal waste, manure and for other fuels which do not meet the specific definition of biomass within the renewables obligation (RO).
	The audit report must be prepared to ISAE3000 standard or its equivalent, and must be prepared by a person who is not the owner or operator of the station or a connected person. In the case of biomass which is not waste or derived from waste, the audit must cover the information provided by the operator of the station in respect of the land criteria or Timber Standard, and greenhouse gas sustainability criteria. In the case of biomass which is waste or derived from waste, the audit must cover the information provided by the operator of the station that the biomass was waste or wholly derived from waste. Other detailed requirements for the audit report are set out in article 54B of the Renewables Obligation Order 2009, as inserted by article 15 of the Renewables Obligation (Amendment) Order 2014.
	A similar audit requirement is planned to apply to Combined Heat and Power (CHP) stations receiving support under the renewable heat incentive (RHI) if they choose not to source fuel from the RHI Biomass Suppliers List (BSL), a list of suppliers selling sustainable fuel, but instead report against the RHI sustainability criteria to Ofgem.
	It is intended that the Contracts for Difference (CfD) awarded for bioenergy under the first Electricity Market Reform Delivery Plan will follow the same approach on sustainability audit as set out under the renewables obligation.
	Ofgem, as the administrator of the renewables obligation, carries out a programme of audits of accredited generating stations, primarily to guard against fraud and error. This can include stations over 1MW in size that use solid biomass or biogas. They also ensure that a generating station remains an eligible renewable generating station for the purposes of the RO, that Ofgem holds the most up-to-date information for a station, and that the correct number of renewables obligation certificates (ROCs) has been issued to the generator in question. The audits are carried out on a rolling basis, with targeted audits where it is deemed necessary. The CfD Counterparty company will be empowered under the Contracts for Difference to audit any generating station it chooses, with one business day's written notice, to check compliance with agreed fuel measurement and sampling procedures.

Biofuels

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the quantity of biomass consumed by the 1% of biomass plant that was below 1MW in capacity.

Michael Fallon: We have not made a recent estimate of the quantity of biomass consumed by biomass plant below 1MW in capacity.
	However, based on modelling published in the Impact Assessment to the Renewables Obligation Banding Review 2012, we can estimate the theoretical quantity of biomass that would be consumed by 1% of total generating capacity. Assuming all the planned plants were built, this would give a theoretical maximum equivalent to around 150,000 oven dried tonnes per annum in 2016-17. This figure excludes potential capacity changes to plants below 1MW as a result of the introduction of the 400MW cap for new build dedicated biomass.

Combined Heat and Power

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment his Department has made of the effect of deterioration in normal operation on the efficiency assumptions for the new combined heat and power classifications.

Gregory Barker: In 2013 the Government reviewed the minimum performance standards for renewable combined heat and power (CHP) set in our Quality Assurance programme. In response to the consultation responses on the proposed revisions we reviewed available data on renewable CHP performance, including deterioration. As a result of this review performance assumptions for new engines/turbines were relaxed in finalising the requirements based on evidence. In respect of deterioration in normal operation the Government reviewed CHP Quality Assurance data on the operational efficiency of eight renewable CHP schemes, each with two to 13 years operational data. Of these, three showed increasing efficiency over time and five showed no discernible increase or decrease over time.

Energy: Business

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what sanctions or remedies are available if energy suppliers do not end automatic run-overs of contracts for supplying energy to small businesses.

Michael Fallon: The practice of the automatic roll-over of contracts does not breach any licence condition and therefore there are currently no sanctions available to Government or the independent regulator (Ofgem).
	Last year Ofgem carried out a review of the practice of automatic renewal contract arrangements in the non-domestic retail energy market. As a result of the review, Ofgem is currently consulting on proposals to improve end of contract arrangements. The proposals do not include a ban on automatic rollovers because Ofgem considers that such a ban could reduce competition from independent suppliers, which gives small businesses a greater choice to choose a deal that suits their business needs. The focus is on improving protections for non-domestic consumers by improving the clarity of information provided by energy supply companies. The consultation closes on 9 April and is available from Ofgem's website at:
	https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/non-domestic-automatic-rollovers-and-contract-renewals
	In June last year we set up a No. 10/DECC SME Energy Working Group to tackle issues facing small business with groups including the Federation of Small Businesses and the Forum for Private Business and Energy UK.
	As a result a number of energy companies have already agreed to introduce arrangements before the end of this year to limit back-bills to 1 year where the supplier is at fault, which is the same rule as for domestic customers, and to end automatic-rollovers for all new customers from spring 2014 and to existing customers shortly after.
	We will continue to work with industry and SME consumer groups to address issues to help disengaged small business energy consumers.

Fuel Poverty

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps he is taking to ensure that the new Fuel Poverty Target will address the specific needs of people affected by conditions such as muscular dystrophy and neuromuscular conditions.

Gregory Barker: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Harborough (Sir Edward Garnier) on 26 February 2014, Official Report, column 416W.

Fuel Poverty: Scotland

Fiona O'Donnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on fuel poverty and the use of prepayment meters by the fuel poor.

Gregory Barker: Officials in the Department liaise regularly with the Scottish Government on a range of fuel poverty related issues.

Magnox Ltd

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment his Department has made of the socio-economic development performance of Magnox in North Ayrshire.

Michael Fallon: Magnox Ltd is the site licence company that operates 10 Magnox sites under contract to the NDA. Magnox Ltd published a socio-economic strategy for its sites in 2011, which includes Hunterston A in North Ayrshire. DECC has no direct role in assessing Magnox's performance in this area which is a matter for the NDA.

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Mark Tami: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what involvement his Department had in overseeing the activities of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in awarding the Magnox/RSRL contract; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Fallon: The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is responsible for running the competition to secure a new parent body organisation for Magnox Ltd and Research Sites Restoration Ltd in line with its statutory duties and responsibilities under the Energy Act 2004. The competition is run in strict accordance with UK and EU procurement regulations. Oversight and governance is provided by the NDA's Competition Programme Board, on which the Government is represented by the Shareholder Executive (on behalf of DECC), HM Treasury and Infrastructure UK. Formal Government approval will be required before the contract can be awarded in September.

Nuclear Management Partners

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment his Department has made of the socio-economic development performance of NMP in West Cumbria.

Michael Fallon: NMP is the parent body organisation for Sellafield Ltd, the site licence company that operates Sellafield site under contract to the NDA. NMP, Sellafield Ltd and the NDA work collaboratively to support the socio-economic agenda in west Cumbria, with all three organisations having focused their activities through Britain's Energy Coast, the private/public sector partnership established to promote and develop the economic prospects of the area. DECC has no direct role in assessing NMP's performance in this area which is a matter for the NDA.

Ofgem

David Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether customers phoning Ofgem can speak to an employee in addition to using the automatic system; whether it is Ofgem's policy to advise callers to contact the nearest citizen's advice bureau for queries on energy firms and prices; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Fallon: Telephone calls to Ofgem's main telephone number initially lead to an automated system, where complaints or inquiries about an energy company or a need for advice lead to a recorded message advising the person to contact the relevant energy company or Government-funded citizen's consumer service. If callers wish to speak to a named person, have an inquiry about Ofgem policies or have any other inquiry they will be transferred to a person.

Solar Power

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how much solar photovoltaic generating capacity was installed on roof tops under the 250-5MWp FIT band in 2013; and how much capacity will be so installed in 2014.

Gregory Barker: In 2013 5MW of solar photovoltaic (across 10 installations) was installed under the 250-5MW FIT band. The Central FIT Register, from which these figures are taken, does not contain information on whether these installations are located on rooftops or ground mounted but all schemes under this tariff band will be wired to provide electricity to a building.
	However the Government is actively focused on unlocking to deployment in the mid-sized market. Our current estimates suggest that around 20-230MW may be deployed in the 250-5000kW tariff band in 2014; this range reflects the uncertainties described above.

Solar Power

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what progress his Department has made in mobilising the mid-scale solar photovoltaic sector; and if he will make a statement.

Gregory Barker: On Friday 4 April I launched the UK's first Solar PV Strategy, which set out our ambition for Solar PV in the UK. Central to this is an emphasis on deployment on Commercial and Industrial buildings as well as domestic roof tops, rather than large scale ground-mounted systems.
	The solar strategy sets out a number of wide ranging actions which will encourage deployment in this part of the sector.

EDUCATION

Academies

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he plans to allow Ofsted to inspect bodies which run chains of academy schools.

Edward Timpson: Ofsted already inspects academy chains through batched inspections of schools within chains. It has recently undertaken focused inspections of academies within the E-ACT multi-academy trust and has previously inspected a group of academies within the AET chain. This has shown to be an effective approach and there are no plans to widen Ofsted's role to inspect head offices.

Children in Care: Asylum

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what guidance his Department provides to local authorities on care leaving arrangements for asylum seekers who came to the UK alone as children.

Edward Timpson: Guidance to local authorities on care leaving arrangements for asylum seekers who came to the UK alone as children is included in Volume 3 of ‘The Children Act Guidance and Regulations: Planning Transition to Adulthood for Care Leavers’.
	http://resources.leavingcare.org/uploads/c4f7aeaf941cdef b8f4a18f478aa1f19.pdf
	The Department for Education published for consultation in January of this year draft statutory guidance to local authorities on the care of unaccompanied asylum seeking and trafficked children.
	https://www.education.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?action=conResults&consultationid=1945& external=no&menu=3
	This new guidance brings together guidance on transition planning with wider guidance on providing care for unaccompanied asylum seeking children. That consultation has now closed and final guidance will be published in due course.

Curriculum

Adrian Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to increase the involvement of practising teachers in the design of the national curriculum.

Elizabeth Truss: The new national curriculum, which was published on 11 September 2013, has been developed with due regard to the views of subject experts, teachers, and the findings of international best practice comparisons. Over 2,470 of the responses to the consultation on the new curriculum were from individual teachers, headteachers and schools. In response to the representations, changes were made to improve clarity, precision and consistency of the content.
	We are confident that our reform to the national curriculum will give teachers greater flexibility and freedom than ever before, which will help to raise standards and expectations for all pupils. The national curriculum has been significantly slimmed down and will free up teachers to use their professional judgment to design curricula that meet the needs of their pupils.

Education: Assessments

David Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education pursuant to the written statement of 27 March 2014, Official Report, columns 35-6WS, on primary and 16-to-19 assessment and accountability, how the progress of pupils with severe educational needs will be taken into account in his Department’s accountability reform programme.

David Laws: We plan to continue to publish information on attainment and progress of pupils with special educational needs at national and local authority level. A new web portal, which is under development, will improve access to 16-18 performance data, including the core demographic information such as special educational needs that is currently available for primary and secondary schools.
	Any pupils not able to access the relevant end of key stage test will continue to have their attainment assessed by teachers, and we will retain P scales for reporting teachers' judgments.

Education: Assessments

David Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for Education pursuant to the written statement of 27 March 2014, Official Report, columns 35-6WS, on primary and 16-to-19 assessment and accountability, what account will be taken of the progress made by children who have entered the school beyond the baseline reception assessment procedure, but who do not warrant exemption under the final two years prior to Key Stage 2 exams.

David Laws: Schools will continue to be expected to assess all of their pupils upon entering school and track their progress. Ofsted will expect to see evidence that pupils are making appropriate progress, with inspections informed by the school's data on pupil progress. Assessment at key stage 1 will remain a statutory requirement.

Forced Marriage

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to ensure that teachers are aware of how to support students at risk of forced marriage; and what material his Department make available in schools on sources of help for those threatened with forced marriage.

Edward Timpson: On 3 April the Government published 'Keeping Children Safe in Education', updated statutory guidance for schools and colleges on their safeguarding responsibilities. The Secretary of State for Education wrote to all headteachers to draw their attention to the updated guidance, which can be found at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education
	The guidance contains links to sources of more detailed information and guidance on specific risks, including forced marriage. The information on forced marriage includes multi-agency practice guidelines, which contain a chapter targeted at schools, colleges and universities and details of national support agencies that may assist girls and young women.

Home Education: Pendle

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many children in Pendle constituency are home-schooled.

Elizabeth Truss: The information requested is not collected by the Department for Education.

Literacy: Primary Education

Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what assessment he has made of long-term trends in the number of hours of literacy teaching which primary school children receive and how this affects reading and writing attainment.

Elizabeth Truss: We do not collect data on the number of hours of literacy teaching primary school children receive.
	We are committed to raising standards of literacy in schools and making sure that every child masters the basics of reading and writing at a young age. The new primary national curriculum for English is explicitly designed to make sure that all children leave primary school fully literate and ready to progress at secondary school.
	The new national curriculum sets out very clearly what should be taught to pupils. However, it gives school the flexibility to decide how to teach it, including how much time to spend on teaching literacy, because schools are best placed to determine the needs and abilities of their pupils and how to meet them.

National College for Teaching and Leadership

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will take steps to require all police referrals to the National College of Teaching and Leadership to include details of the school where the alleged teacher previously taught.

David Laws: Referrals by the police to the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) are currently made under the Notifiable Occupations Scheme, which is the responsibility of the Home Office (Home Office Circular No. 6/2006). The scheme is currently under review with new provisions being considered by the Home Office to supersede the existing scheme.
	Officials at NCTL are in discussions with the Association of Chief Police Officers to ensure that the new scheme continues to provide consistent, timely and relevant information. Disclosure of the teacher's current or last employment will be considered as part of those ongoing discussions.

Park View Academy

Khalid Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education for what reasons eight of the 13 governors from Park View Academy resigned within five months of its transfer to academy status.

Edward Timpson: Governors may resign at any time for their own reasons; they do not need to tell the Department for Education or their fellow governors why.
	The Department's preference is for small and manageable, skill-based strategic governing bodies as these are more effective, and it will normally recommend this when an academy trust is first formed. The governance arrangements for an academy trust are set out in its articles of association.
	Park View Educational Trust has told the Department that there was a need to rationalise the governing body to ensure it could operate more effectively, and in order to comply with the Department's preferred model when other academies joined the trust to form a multi-academy trust.
	We are aware of the serious allegations made in relation to some local authority schools and academies in Birmingham. Park View Academy has recently been inspected by Ofsted, and officials from the Department have also visited the school. We will not hesitate to take firm action if the high standards and requirements expected of schools are not being met—in particular, where we become aware of issues of concern in an academy we will move quickly to resolve these. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.

Procurement

Sheila Gilmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what the (a) 20 highest and (b) 20 lowest value contracts awarded by his Department were in each financial year since 2009-10.

Elizabeth Truss: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, my right hon. Friend the Member for Horsham (Mr Maude), on 2 April 2014, Official Report, column 721W.

Pupil Exclusions: Autism

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education pursuant to the answer of 4 March 2014, Official Report, columns 787-8W, on pupil exclusions: autism, how his Department deals with allegations that schools are disregarding the statutory guidance on exclusion in respect of students with autistic disorders.

Elizabeth Truss: As part of their legal duties in relation to exclusion, schools must have regard to the statutory guidance issued by the Department for Education. Parents approaching the Department with concerns about an exclusion are informed about the formal routes of challenge available to them and directed to sources of free and impartial advice. If the Department identifies that a governing body has acted unlawfully or unreasonably in carrying out its legal duties, and it would be expedient to do so, then the Secretary of State could issue a direction. The Department would also pass to Ofsted any relevant evidence that fell within the inspectorate's remit.

Pupils: Per Capita Costs

Gavin Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what the (a) total and (b) average funding per head is under the basic funding formula for pupils in Staffordshire in 2014-15.

David Laws: Total funding under the schools block element of the dedicated schools grant in financial year 2014 to 2015 for Staffordshire is £455.7 million, with an associated unit of funding per pupil of £4,310.
	More information on the dedicated schools grant allocations for financial year 2014 to 2015 can be found here:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-2014-to-2015

Pupils: Per Capita Costs

Gavin Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what the (a) total and (b) average funding per head is under the basic funding formula for pupils in Somerset in 2014-15.

David Laws: Total funding under the schools block element of the dedicated schools grant in financial year 2014 to 2015 for Somerset is £273.2 million, with an associated unit of funding per pupil of £4,278.
	More information on the dedicated schools grant allocations for financial year 2014 to 2015 can be found here:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-2014-to-2015

Schools: Finance

Tom Blenkinsop: To ask the Secretary of State for Education pursuant to the answer of 31 March 2014, Official Report, column 426W, on schools: finance, what the (a) total and (b) per pupil funding for each local authority area for 2015-16 is under the proposals currently published for consultation.

David Laws: I announced on 13 March that in 2015-16, in addition to funding all local authorities at the same cash level per pupil as in 2014-15, we will provide an additional £350 million to the least fairly funded local authorities in the country. Our indicative figures for each local authority that gains under our proposals are published in Annex A of the consultation document at the following address:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/fairer-schools-funding-2015-to-2016
	We will protect the funding for all local authorities that do not gain under our minimum funding level proposals, ensuring that they will be funded at the same cash level per pupil as in 2014-15. The 2014-15 total and per pupil rates of funding for these local authorities are published at the following address:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dedicated-schools-grant-2014-to-2015
	We will be able to announce final decisions on per pupil funding for each gaining local authority in 2015-16 after we have considered responses to the consultation, which closes on 30 April. We will be able to announce the total funding for each local authority in 2015-16 once final pupil numbers are confirmed.

Schools: Governing Bodies

Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what assessment he has made of how well-prepared school governors are in advance of their taking the first decisions regarding performance-related pay.

Edward Timpson: Governors have held school leadership to account for school performance, including the assessment of overall teacher performance, for some time. With the introduction of performance-related pay, governing bodies will have already approved revised pay policies that set out precisely how their schools will make performance and pay decisions.
	To support governors in exercising their responsibilities, the Department for Education issued advice on implementing the new pay arrangements. The National College for Teaching and Leadership has also offered training for governors on performance-related pay and financial efficiencies. In addition, the National Governors Association has published guidance on how governors should prepare to deal with pay appeals. We believe that, with this support, most governing bodies will have the knowledge and awareness of the key issues they need to address to ensure that robust evidence-based pay decisions are made this September.

Teachers

Anne McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many people have entered (a) teacher training and (b) the teaching profession as qualified teachers in each of the last five years; and how many unqualified teachers have been employed in (i) England and (ii) North Yorkshire in each of the last five years.

David Laws: The following table provides the number of initial teacher training entrants, qualified teacher entrants and full-time equivalent unqualified teachers in service in publicly funded schools in England, 2008 to the latest year available. Information on teachers starting training and entering service is not available by local authority area so cannot be provided for North Yorkshire. Figures for the number of full-time equivalent unqualified teachers are available and have been given.
	
		
			  Initial Teacher Training (ITT)1, 2 Qualified Teacher Entrants3, 4 Unqualified Teachers5 
			  First year trainees Full-time Part-time Full-time equivalent 
			 2008/09     
			 North Yorkshire - - - 180 
			 England 37,270 32,330 7,500 17,530 
			      
			 2009/10     
			 North Yorkshire - - - 110 
			 England 38,920 29,620 8,410 17,390 
			      
			 2010/11     
			 North Yorkshire - - - - 
			 England 37,900 29,770 7,570 16,930 
			      
			 2011/12     
			 North Yorkshire - - - 190 
			 England 36,520 - - 15,150 
			      
			 2012/13     
			 North Yorkshire - - - 150 
			 England 36,380 - - 14,710 
			 1 Sources-ITT trainee number census (2012/13 and 2013/14) and Performance profiles data (2008/09 to 2011/12). 2 2012/13 and 2013/14 are based upon provisional ITT Census publications, and also contain Teach First. 3 Source-Database of Teacher Records (March each year). Figures for 2011/12 and 2012/13 are not yet available. 4 Figures are provisional for 2010/11. Teacher entrants include all entrants who were awarded qualified teacher status in the previous calendar year and other qualified teachers who were recorded as entering the publicly funded sector for the first time. 5 Sources-618g (January 2008 and 2009) and School Workforce Census (November 2010 to 2012). 2010/11 figures for North Yorkshire are not available because the data was collected in a new format and full confirmation of qualified teacher status was not provided.

Truancy

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what the incidence of truancy was in schools in the latest period for which figures are available; and what steps he is taking to reduce it and to involve parents in those efforts.

Elizabeth Truss: Since the report by Charlie Taylor on improving school attendance, the Government's focus has been on reducing absence overall and encouraging schools to address patterns of poor attendance early.
	To help schools do this, the Department for Education reduced the threshold at which pupils were classified as persistent absent, from 20% to 15% of sessions missed. In 2012, we increased the level of the school attendance penalty fines, from £50 and £100 to £60 and £120 respectively, and in 2013 reduced the overall time scales for paying fines from 42 to 28 days. The second most common reason for absence is family holiday, so we tightened the law in September 2013 so that headteachers could only grant requests for leave during term time in exceptional circumstances.
	Our reforms are working. In 2012/13, 300,895 pupils were persistently absent, down from 433,130 in 2009/10—a fall of almost a third. 130,000 fewer pupils were missing 15% of school in 2012/13 compared to 2010/11. Overall absence rates are down from 6.3% of possible sessions missed in 2008/09 to 5.2% in 2012/13.

DEFENCE

Armed Forces Covenant

Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress his Department has made in implementing the Military Covenant; and if he will make a statement.

Anna Soubry: There is a statutory obligation on the Secretary of State for Defence to report annually on progress in implementing the Armed Forces Covenant. The second annual report was published in December 2013 and contains comprehensive updates on the four major areas specified in the Armed Forces Act 2011, namely health care, education, housing, and the operation of inquests.
	I look forward to significant further progress in the coming year, including supporting service personnel to buy their first home through the £200 million Forces Help to Buy scheme, improving patient care by establishing a unified defence primary health care service, and allocating £40 million to support charities which assist veterans with housing needs.
	The Covenant is not just a matter for the Government; recognising and respecting the specific needs of the armed forces community is a duty incumbent on the whole of society. Charities, employers, local authorities and individuals can play their role in providing the support and fair treatment that our service personnel, veterans and service families so richly deserve.

Armed Forces: Pensions

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what savings have accrued to the Exchequer through the linking of the value of armed forces pensions to the Consumer Prices Index rather than the Retail Prices Index.

Anna Soubry: holding answer 25 March 2014
	The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is used to set the inflation target for the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee; it is the headline measure of inflation in the UK as reported by the Office of National Statistics, and is an internationally comparable measure.
	CPI is therefore considered by the Government to be the appropriate index to provide protection from inflation, which is why both the armed forces and civil service pension schemes use this measure.
	The armed forces continue to benefit from the only major public sector pension scheme that is non-contributory.
	The information requested is shown in the following table. These figures are estimates:
	
		
			  Financial year £ million (approximate) 
			 1. 2011-12 48 
			 2. 2012-13 67 
			 3. 2013-14 85

Armed Forces: Sexual Offences

Gemma Doyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  how many prosecutions of (a) rape and (b) sexual assault of members of the armed forces resulted in a conviction by the Military Courts Service in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012 and (iv) 2013;
	(2)  how many allegations of (a) rape and (b) sexual assault were made within the chain of command against members of the armed forces in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012 and (iv) 2013; and, of such cases, how many resulted in a prosecution by the Service Prosecution Authority.

Anna Soubry: All allegations of rape and sexual assault will be thoroughly investigated by either the civil or service police, depending upon who has jurisdiction. The following table provides details of the number of allegations of rape and sexual assault made within the chain of command against members of the armed forces in each of the last four years as recorded by the service police. Reference to rape covers offences under section 1 and sexual assault covers offences under sections 2 and 3 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
	
		
			  Total allegations in: 
			 Sexual offence 2010 2011 2012 2013 
			 Rape 23 20 22 25 
			 Sexual assault 70 77 50 60 
		
	
	The following table provides details of the number of referrals to the Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA) in each of the last four years, the number directed for trial and the number of convictions in the Military Court Service.
	
		
			 Number 
			  2010 2011 2012 2013 
			 Rape case referrals 21 18 22 20 
			 Directed for trial 9 6 10 9 
			 Convictions 6 3 4 10 
			 Sexual assault case referrals 51 70 31 45 
			 Directed for trial 27 35 18 23 
			 Convictions 23 31 9 27 
			 1 Seven further cases are currently on trial. 2 11 trials ongoing. 
		
	
	The SPA may receive referrals in one year and the cases are directed/not directed and/or tried in the following year, so there is no direct correlation to the number of cases brought in any one year.
	I should also like to take the opportunity to clarify the relationship between the figures provided in this answer, and earlier answers. The figures for sexual assaults in this answer are different to those provided by the then Minister for Defence Personnel, Welfare and Veterans, my right hon. Friend the Member for South Leicestershire (Mr Robathan), on 6 July 2012, Official Report, column 822W, in response to a question from the hon. Member for Bridgend (Mrs Moon), for sexual assault referrals in the years between 2010 and 2012 (although 2012 was only for part of the year). This is because the term sexual assault has been expanded to cover the offences of indecent assault and sexual activity with a child. In addition, the figures provided in a response given by my predecessor (Mark Francois) on 30 November 2012, Official Report, column 555W, again to the hon. Member for Bridgend (Mrs Moon), referred only to the number of cases where the victim was a member of the armed forces. The figures in the tables above cover all cases handled by the SPA, whether or not the victim was a member of the armed forces.

Armed Forces: Training

Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 27 March 2014, Official Report, column 317W, on armed forces: training, how many hours of equality and diversity training new services entrants receive during basic training; how many hours refresher training (a) Army, (b) Navy and (c) RAF personnel receive each year they are required to receive such training; and if he will make a statement.

Anna Soubry: The requested information is set out in the following table:
	
		
			  Refresher (hours of E&D training) New Entrants (hours of Equality and Diversity (E&D) training) 
			 Royal Navy Two every two years 3 
			 Army 0.5 every year 2 
			 Royal Air Force Two every three years 2-4

Armed Forces: Young People

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when RAF enlistment papers and information given to prospective recruits will be updated to reflect the extended discharge as of right for recruits enlisting under the age of 18 years old, as introduced in the Armed Forces (Terms of Service) (Amendment) Regulations 2011.

Anna Soubry: The RAF's enlistment paperwork was updated immediately after the Amendment in 2011 and continues correctly to reflect the rights for discharge of airmen under 18 years of age.

Army: Recruitment

Naomi Long: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much the More Than Meets The Eye recruitment campaign has cost; and if he will place in the Library copies of the written brief for the campaign and any evaluation that has been made so far.

Anna Soubry: The date and approximate cost of each campaign specified is shown in the following table:
	
		
			 Campaign  Focus Costs (£ million) 
			 More Than Meets The Eye January to March 2014 Regular/Reserve 2.7 
			 Step Up May to September 2013 Regular 1.8 
			 Start Thinking Soldier April to September 2009 Regular 4.6 
		
	
	The evaluation work for the More Than Meets The Eye campaign is expected to report in May. The figure quoted reflects the media costs of the campaign, and includes approximately £1.2 million from the existing contracted budget. I have placed a copy of the marketing brief and analysis of results for the Step Up campaign in the Library of the House. The Start Thinking Soldier campaign took place four years before the current partnering arrangement between the Army and Capita started. Although formal evaluation is no longer held for Start Thinking Soldier, I have placed the marketing brief for the television advertising in the Library of the House.
	The Army is always recruiting, as it requires a constant flow of personnel to enter as privates and officer cadets, and then to gain the knowledge and experience to be promoted through the ranks. Consequently, it will always need to run recruitment campaigns. Army recruiting will continue to be supported by targeted campaigns, designed to highlight the variety of skills and trades available in both the regular and reserve forces.

BAE Systems

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library a copy of his Department's agreement in principle for three offshore patrol vessels with BAE Systems.

Philip Dunne: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 8 November 2013, Official Report, column 401W.

Brompton Road Station

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  what valuation was undertaken prior to the sale of Brompton Road tube station;
	(2)  what the sale process was for Brompton Road tube station;
	(3)  how many bidders there were for Brompton Road tube station;
	(4)  how many tube stations his Department owns.

Andrew Murrison: No tube stations are currently owned by the Ministry of Defence.
	Brompton Road Tube Station was valued by the Department's independent marketing agent. The top bid received was in excess of this valuation.
	Brompton Road Tube Station was sold in accordance with the normal departmental procedures as mandated by the Treasury.
	There were 12 bidders for Brompton Road Tube Station.

Clyde Submarine Base

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  what the tritium gas emissions have been from RNAD Coulport in each of the last four years; and what estimate he has made of emissions in each of the next four years;
	(2)  how much of each type of radioactive emission will change at (a) RNAD Coulport and (b) HMNB Clyde in each of the next six years.

Philip Dunne: The most up to date figures for tritium discharges from Royal Naval Armament Depot (RNAD) Coulport are published annually in Radioactivity in Food and the Environment which the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) co-authors. They are also shown in the following table:
	
		
			  Annual Gaseous Discharges Gigabecuerel (GBq)   
			 Type 2009 2010 2011 2012 Current rolling 12 monthly total SEPA Approved Limit (GBq) MOD proposed annual limits (GBq) 
			 Tritium 3.400 4.510 6.050 6.950 50 20 
		
	
	These discharges are well within the current limits approved by SEPA. This compares well with tritium gaseous discharges from other sites regulated by SEPA, for example, Hunterston B Nuclear Power Station in 2012 had an annual discharge of 2560 GBq.
	Future discharge levels of each type of radioactive discharge from Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde, which includes the RNAD Coulport, will depend on the specific activities and operations that take place at those sites, but are expected to be well within the annual limits proposed by the Ministry of Defence which are currently under consideration by SEPA.

Defence Equipment and Support

Peter Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  if he will publish the corporate plan of the Defence Equipment and Support Organisation relating to its new bespoke trading fund status;
	(2)  what advantages he expects to accrue from the new bespoke trading fund status of the Defence Equipment and Support Organisation; and what new freedoms that organisation will have which were not previously available to it.

Alison Seabeck: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish the detailed arrangements for the bespoke trading entity being set up with existing DE&S.

Philip Dunne: Copies of the Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) Corporate Plan and the Framework Document will be placed in the Library of the House in due course, and published on the gov.uk website and the Defence Intranet. The Corporate Plan sets out the DE&S strategic objectives and timelines for the next three years. The Framework Document includes the function and governance arrangements for the new DE&S, including the freedoms and benefits.

Defence: Procurement

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his Department spend was in total in 2013-14 on defence procurement; and what proportion of that total was spent in the (a) UK, (b) EU and (c) rest of the world.

Philip Dunne: Information on spending on defence procurement in financial year 2013-14 will be available once the audit of defence expenditure in that year has been completed; we are due to report our 2013-14 financial performance in our Annual Report and Accounts before the House rises for the summer recess. Information for April to September 2013 was published in the Ministry of Defence (MOD)'s Mid Year Report on 24 January 2014, available at the following link:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministry-of-defence-mid-year-progress-report
	The MOD does not routinely record information on the geographic location of its supply chain.

Defence: Procurement

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his Department plans to spend on defence procurement in 2014-15 as a proportion of the overall departmental budget.

Philip Dunne: This information will be available once the 2014-15 Main Supply Estimates have been laid before the House, which is currently planned for the end of April 2014.

Guided Weapons

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the planned in-service date is for the Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon; how many will be procured; and what estimate he has made of the (a) total programme and (b) unit cost.

Philip Dunne: The planned in-service date for the Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon (Heavy) (FASGW(H)) is 2020. I am withholding the information relating to the number being procured as its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the armed forces.
	The total programme cost for FASGW(H) is £500 million and is a joint investment with the French Government. The UK's contribution is £280 million (contract value excluding VAT). I am withholding information on the unit cost of FASGW(H) as its disclosure would prejudice commercial interests.
	I am also withholding all information on the FASGW (Light) as contract negotiations are ongoing and disclosure would prejudice commercial interests.

Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the effect of other nations buying fewer joint strike fighters than originally planned on the final price of that aircraft.

Philip Dunne: As part of the Ministry of Defence's annual budgeting cycle and in-year financial management process, the Department is constantly reviewing the unit production cost (UPC) for the Joint Strike Fighter as it affects the UK programme. Consequently, the UK is always aware of the impact of any changes in other nation's aircraft buys. The impact of changes in UPC is mitigated via financial risk provision within the programme budget.

Members: Correspondence

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth of 23 December 2013, regarding a review of a discharge from the British Army.

Anna Soubry: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has no record of receiving the letter from the hon. Member. The MOD requested a copy of the letter on 3 April 2014 and will respond shortly.

Military Aviation Authority

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2014, Official Report, column 39W, on Military Aviation Authority, when the Military Aviation Authority plans to publish its Annual Air Safety Report for 2012-13; and for what reason it has not yet been published.

Mark Francois: The Director General of the Military Aviation Authority's Annual Report on Defence Air Safety, for the period July 2012 to August 2013, is now available on the Military Aviation Authority website at:
	http://www.maa.mod.uk/about/index.htm

Military Bases

Fabian Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence for what reason the Defence Infrastructure Organisation will be inviting expressions of interest in a contract for provision of maintenance and repair services on all UK military sites used by US Visiting Forces; and who will be responsible for (a) deciding on the work which is to be carried out and (b) paying the contactors.

Andrew Murrison: The UK Government has Treaty obligations for providing maintenance and repair services on United States Forces (USF) sites. Contracts to provide these services are periodically renewed by the Ministry of Defence (MOD).
	Any work to be carried out is determined jointly between the MOD and USF.
	The MOD is responsible for the payment process; however, USF provide the funding by repaying the MOD for the cost of maintenance and repair services and providing an additional 7.5% contribution towards Defence Infrastructure Organisation running costs.

NATO

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what (a) personnel and (b) assets are participating in NATO's Baltic Regional Training Events in 2014; and what (i) personnel and (ii) assets participated in the events in each of the last three years.

Andrew Murrison: The UK is currently reviewing our contribution to national and NATO exercises in the Baltic Region in 2014; final decisions have not yet been made.
	There are no central records for 2011 and 2012. However, in 2013 the UK provided 124 personnel to the following exercises involving NATO allies:
	Exercise Sabre Strike 13, Latvia 1 to 14 June 2013.
	Exercise Kevadtorm 13, Estonia 14 to 25 May 2013.
	In addition the UK provided one mine counter measure vessel (ship's company of 40 personnel) to:
	Exercise Steadfast Jazz 13, Baltic Sea, November 2013.

Public Expenditure

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Budget Statement on 19 March 2014, Official Report, column 784, what effect making departmental underspends permanent and locked-in will have on his Department’s budgetary assumptions in relation to his Department’s (a) revenue and (b) capital budget until 2015-16.

Philip Hammond: holding answer 31 March 2014
	The Chancellor's Budget statement did not change the Ministry of Defence (MOD)'s budgetary position until 2015-16 from that set out at the autumn statement in December 2013.
	The Treasury has confirmed that Defence's overall position remains unchanged as a result of the Budget: there has been no change to the MOD's budgetary baseline for 2015-16.

Tornado Aircraft

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence for what reasons the installation of an EASAMS Collision Warning System in Tornado aircraft was not completed following the successful trials of the system in 1995 and 1996.

Philip Dunne: This technical demonstrator programme was aimed at evaluating the compatibility of the collision warning system concept in the fast jet environment. Technical demonstrator programmes are used to test the technical feasibility of new technology projects, often using experimental or conceptual technologies. They are not expected to produce equipment capable of being brought into service with the armed forces.

Tornado Aircraft

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence 
	(1)  whether the fitting of the Rangeless Autonomous Information Debriefing System equipment to Tornado aircraft was regarded as mitigation for the collision warning risk over the last decade;
	(2)  what collision warning capability the Rangeless Autonomous Information Debriefing System had.

Philip Dunne: The Rangeless Airborne Instrumented Debriefing System (RAIDS) as fitted to RAF aircraft has no collision warning capability.
	It logs and stores GPS positional data during flight. Data can only be downloaded post-flight to allow replay during sortie debriefing of the positional data for all aircraft fitted with RAIDS. Therefore, it provides no situational awareness to the crew in flight.

Ukraine

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will update the Defence Strategic Guidance to reflect the Russian annexation of the Crimea.

Philip Hammond: The 2010 national security strategy and the strategic defence and security review (SDSR) set the top level political direction and guidance for UK Defence. Defence strategic direction (DSD) translates this top level direction into broad priorities for Defence but it does not set specific goals, or relate to specific missions, activities or threats, and it would not be appropriate or practical to update DSD in the face of each individual crisis or threat.

Unmanned Air Vehicles

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether there has been any testing (a) in Southern Australia and (b) elsewhere of the ability of the Taranis system to identify or strike targets autonomously. [R]

Philip Dunne: I am withholding details of the locations at which Taranis flight trials have taken place for the purpose of safeguarding national security. The Ministry of Defence has no plans to create weapons that operate without human control. Trained members of the armed forces will always be involved in the command and control of unmanned air systems.

USA

Fabian Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the implications for the future of RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall of the Rand Corporation report on the posture triangle; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Francois: The US authorities are finalising a study into future US basing requirements in Europe, and no decisions have been taken in respect of RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall. No assessment of the Rand Corporation report has therefore been made.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Children: Maintenance

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much child maintenance debt is regarded as (a) permanently and (b) temporarily uncollectable.

Steve Webb: As at December 2013, the amount of child maintenance debt regarded as (a) permanently uncollectible is £256 million and (b) temporarily uncollectible is £1.2 billion.
	Notes:
	1. The figure for permanently uncollectible debt is sourced from the Arrears Segmentation table (page 46) of the December 2013 CSA Quarterly Summary of Statistics (QSS) available at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/286597/csa_qtr_summ_stats_dec13.pdf
	2. The figure for temporarily uncollectible debt includes debt where the parent is untraceable, the parent is abroad or the debt has been suspended.

Children: Maintenance

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of recovery actions in respect of child support arrears owed to the parent with care have been suspended in the last year for which figures are available.

Steve Webb: Information on the number of cases, in which recovery actions in respect of child support arrears owed to the parent with care have been suspended, is not available as it is not routinely recorded for management information purposes. To provide this information would require the creation of new information which could be completed and appropriately assured only at a disproportionate cost.

Employment and Support Allowance

Adrian Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to his letter of 20 March 2014, what the evidential basis is for his statement that allowing people receiving employment and support allowance to do some work within a specified 52 week period is the best way of encouraging a move towards work of 16 hours or more a week.

Esther McVey: The permitted work rules in employment and support allowance are based on those which applied to incapacity benefit. This approach was supported by evidence contained in DWP Research Report 268 "Final outcome from Permitted Work Rules".

Habitual Residence Test

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will amend the benefits rules on the habitual residency test to exempt family members in the services returning from an overseas posting; and if he will make a statement.

Esther McVey: It has always been the case that all migrants, including UK nationals returning from anything more than a short period abroad, must satisfy the habitual residence test. This is a vital tool which enables the Government to continue to protect the integrity of the UK welfare system.

Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of social housing tenants have been affected by the implementation of the under-occupancy penalty in each local authority area.

Esther McVey: The information is not available in the format requested.
	The information at regional level is provided in our impact assessment at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/214329/social-sector-housing-under-occupation-wr2011-ia.pdf

Jobcentre Plus

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department has spent on the Jobcentre Plus rapid response service in each year since 2003-04.

Esther McVey: Information requested can only be provided in part due to seven year archive period for financials data.
	Spend on Rapid Response Service has therefore been:
	
		
			 Period Spend (£) 
			 2007-08 579,853 
			 2008-09 851,954 
			 2009-10 9,963,293 
			 2010-11 6,472,119 
			 2011-12 3,432,793 
			 2012-13 4,020,041

Jobcentre Plus

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many times a Jobcentre Plus Rapid Response Team has been used since May 2010; and how many deployments have occurred in situations where 20 or more people faced redundancy.

Esther McVey: The Jobcentre Plus Rapid Response Service works closely with employers and people facing redundancy to ensure they have access to all the help and information they need. The service aims to address the impact of job losses on workers and on the local community by helping people move into new jobs as quickly as possible.
	The number of people in work has increased by 1.35 million since 2010—over a million of these jobs are full-time—and the employment rate is now 72.3%, the highest it has been since 2008.
	The level of redundancy is 55,000 lower than in 2010.
	7,506 employers have accepted redundancy support from the Jobcentre Plus Rapid Response Service since May 2010. Of these employers, 6,075 involved potential redundancies of 20 or more employees

Jobcentre Plus

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff of his Department's staff worked in a Jobcentre Plus Rapid Response team in each year since 2004.

Esther McVey: We do not hold this information.

New Enterprise Allowance

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department has spent on the new enterprise allowance in each year since its introduction.

Esther McVey: We do not have complete figures for 2013-14 as the yearly accounts have not yet been finalised, and will not be audited until May.
	Spend figures for NEA in the two full financial years to April 2013 are:
	
		
			 £ million 
			  Financial year 
			  2011-12 2012-13 
			 DEL spend 11.4 14.7 
			 AME spend 5.0 18.3

New Enterprise Allowance

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much time someone enrolled on the new enterprise allowance spends with a mentor.

Esther McVey: The pre-start-up mentoring phase on the new enterprise allowance usually lasts for eight weeks, although this can be extended to 12 in exceptional circumstances.
	Post-start up mentoring support is also available throughout the first six months of trading.

New Enterprise Allowance

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make it his policy that Work Programme participants should be eligible for the new enterprise allowance; and if he will make a statement.

Esther McVey: Work Programme Providers have the freedom to provide whatever support they think will be effective in supporting claimants into employment and self-employment.
	Work programme participants may be able to access a loan to support them in setting up a business through the BIS start-up loan scheme.

Occupational Pensions

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of trends in (a) take-up of workplace pensions and (b) anticipated retirement income from current workplace pension accounts.

Steve Webb: The information requested is as follows:
	(a) Automatic enrolment is increasing the take-up of workplace pensions and will continue to do so as the reforms continue to be rolled out over the next few years. The latest figures from The Pensions Regulator show that over 3.2 million individuals have now been enrolled into a workplace pension as a result of the reforms.
	In 2013, 50% of all employees were a member of a pension scheme, rising from 47% in 2012. This was the first increase in participation since 2006 and represented the largest rise since records began in 1997. In particular, for the largest private sector companies (those with more than 5,000 employees), 51% of employees were members of a workplace pension scheme, up from 36% in 2012. These figures were collected in April 2013 when automatic enrolment had been running for just six months.
	(b) Without automatic enrolment, median private pension income was expected to fall from around £3,900 a year in 2020 to around £2,200 a year in 2050. However, with automatic enrolment the median private pension income is expected to be around £3,600 by 2050.

Occupational Pensions

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether the performance of the Pensions Regulator is assessed in relation to trends in (a) take-up of workplace pensions and (b) anticipated retirement income from current workplace pension accounts.

Steve Webb: The Pensions Regulator pursues five main objectives as set out in section 5 of the Pensions Act 2004. These objectives include the protection of benefits to the members of work-based pensions schemes. The Pensions Regulator's key performance indicators are designed to operate in support of its statutory objectives.

Occupational Pensions

Gregg McClymont: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he plans to take to prevent private sector companies providing incentives for their employees to switch from defined benefit to defined contribution pension arrangements.

Steve Webb: We already have powers in place to legislate to ban cash incentive transfers. The incentive exercises code of good practice was created in 2012, and set out seven key principles that pension providers and their advisers must adhere to if they wish to offer their members incentives, including ensuring that members are given sufficient information to enable them to make an informed decision.
	A large number of providers and independent financial advisers have signed up to the code, delivering a prompt solution to address this issue. The Government would encourage all providers to comply with the code.
	Following the Budget announcement HM Treasury are currently running a consultation, "Freedom of Choice in Pensions" where it is considering whether people with a defined benefit pension should be allowed to transfer their accrued benefits into a defined contribution scheme. The outcome of this consultation will inform our thinking on what additional action, if any, the Government should take to restrict or ban pension providers from offering incentives.

Pension Credit

David Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he is taking to increase the take-up of pension credit by eligible pensioners.

Steve Webb: We are committed to ensuring pensioners receive the benefits they are entitled to.
	DWP’s national partnerships team works with over 4,400 customer representative organisations, both nationally and locally, to provide a wide range of advice and support for pensioners.
	DWP has also introduced a web-based pension credit toolkit at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit
	Its purpose is to provide customer representative organisations with all the information needed in order to talk to pensioners about pension credit. In partnership with Age UK, local authorities and other groups, a structured campaign was undertaken to create awareness of the toolkit among those who support our customers.
	DWP makes information available in various locations, for example, our website at:
	http://www.gov.uk/browse/benefits
	and leaflets are available from our DWP information line on 0845 7313233, to ensure that people are aware of the benefits to which they may be entitled and how to claim them.
	We also have capacity through the Age Action Alliance to raise awareness of pension credit with its members which includes older people’s forums and linked organisations from across the UK.

Pensioners: Mortgages

Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make it his policy to take mortgage payments into account when calculating pension credit.

Steve Webb: Pensioners who are entitled to state pension credit may receive an additional element called Support for Mortgage Interest. This makes a contribution towards the interest on eligible loans taken out to purchase the property, and specific loans for repairs and improvements which are necessary to maintain the home's fitness for habitation.

Pensions: Public Sector

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the rationale was for the provisions in the Pensions Bill which allow employers to differentiate pension conditions between previous public sector employees now working in privatised companies and protected persons.

Steve Webb: The Pensions Bill creates a statutory override designed to allow employers, to a very limited extent, to make changes to the scheme to recover the increased cost of national insurance that follows from the introduction of the single tier pension.
	Protected persons are a small group of individuals (approximately 60,000) employed in some formerly nationalised industries, namely rail, including Transport for London, electricity, coal, nuclear waste and decommissioning, where the employers are limited in their ability to change scheme rules by legislation made at the time of privatisation. This legislation prevents employers from making changes to the pension benefits offered to those employees who were previously employed by the state. The Pensions Bill reaffirms that restriction.
	This is a very different situation to other privatisations where a trust deed, rules or other undertaking was made at the time of privatisation, which was not endorsed by Parliament in the same way.
	The important distinction we have made is that where duties to restrict changes to the future pension rights of specific workers, in specific industries have been enshrined in law and endorsed by Parliament, the statutory override should not allow employers to disregard that legislation.
	It should also be noted that contractual agreements between public sector organisations and third parties, which may provide pension protection for staff now working in private companies, are not affected by the statutory override.

Personal Independence Payment

Nick Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the suitability of the medical assessment undertaken for personal independence payment claims.

Michael Penning: The assessment for personal independence payments (PIP) looks at how an impairment or condition affects an individual's ability to live an independent life by assessing their ability to carry out key everyday activities.
	As with all our reforms we will closely monitor its introduction/roll out, refine the process if required and learn lessons early on.
	We are committed to the highest quality of assessment and will carry out two independent reviews.

Personal Independence Payment

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2014, Official Report, column 255W, on Personal Independence Payment, what his Department's original guideline assumptions were of the percentage of personal independence payment new claim referrals that would involve a consultation assessment; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Penning: The Department's guideline volumetric assumptions provided to bidders anticipated that the number of consultations expected as a percentage of new claim referrals would be 75%. These assumptions were the Department's best estimates at the time, in the early stages of programme development. All assumptions were stated to bidders to be indicative only.

Post Office Card Account

Peter Aldous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent discussions his Department has had (a) with Post Office Ltd and (b) other payment services providers on offering a wider range of payment outlets at which Post Office card account customers can access pensions and benefits.

Steve Webb: The Post Office card account can be accessed at any one of around 11,500 branches across the post office network.
	No discussions have taken place with Post Office Ltd or other payment services providers about offering a wider range of payment outlets and there are currently no plans to extend the number of outlets at which Post Office card account customers can access pensions and benefits.

Separated People: Finance

Sheila Gilmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 24 January 2014, Official Report, column 366W, on separated people: finance, whether the effectiveness of the seven projects granted £6.5 million of funding in April 2013 under the Help and Support for Separated Families initiative will be independently evaluated; and whether such evaluations will allow for comparisons between those projects.

Steve Webb: We are in the process of appointing external specialists to evaluate independently all 17 Innovation Fund projects. Consistent measures will be used across the projects where possible. However, direct comparison between projects is unlikely as the projects vary considerably both in terms of their innovative and diverse approaches and their target groups.

Social Security Benefits

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many households have seen their income from benefits reduced by (a) 10, (b) 20 to 49 and (c) 50 per cent or more as a result of benefit changes since May 2010.

Esther McVey: The requested information is not available.

Social Security Benefits: Young People

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the Answer of 25 March 2014, Official Report, columns 232-3W, on social security benefits: young people, if he will publish information relevant to the original question in whatever format that is available.

Esther McVey: The information you require is not available.

South West

Adrian Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many posts in his Department will be relocated to the South West in the next five years.

Michael Penning: The deployment of staff and efficient use of the departmental estate is always subject to review. At the present time, there are no plans to relocate departmental staff to the South West in the next five years.

State Retirement Pensions

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of whether an individual on the minimum wage for a full working lifetime will receive a higher retirement income under the new single tier pension system than under the existing pension system.

Steve Webb: It is not possible to answer this question, as in order to calculate how much state pension an individual may receive in retirement under the single-tier system, compared to the current system, it is necessary to make a considerable number of assumptions. For instance: when they reach state pension age, whether they have been contracted-out of the additional pension, or how many years they live after retirement.
	Chapter 3 of the Single Tier Impact Assessment provides a detailed commentary on factors that are likely to influence whether someone is a notional gainer or loser compared to the current system.
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/254151/a-pensions-bill-single-tier-ia-oct-2013.pdf

Work Capability Assessment: Bristol

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 
	(1)  how many people in Bristol are waiting for a work capability assessment;
	(2)  how many people in Bristol have been waiting for a work capability assessment for more than (a) three and (b) six months.

Michael Penning: As of 2 April 2014 there are 3,355 people in the Bristol (BS) postcode area either awaiting an appointment or have an appointment arranged for a work capability assessment.
	As of 2 April 2014 for the Bristol (BS) postcode area, 2,540 people who are currently awaiting an appointment or have an appointment arranged for a work capability assessment, have been waiting more than three months; 1,766 have been waiting more than six months.

Work Programme

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what funding the European Social Fund will contribute to community work placement contracts in England for 2014-15.

Esther McVey: We have been allocated up to £60 million in 2007-13 ESF programme funding to help support people back into employment through community work placements.

Work Programme

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the minimum service levels are in the Work Programme.

Esther McVey: The minimum service delivery standards for Work Programme providers can be found through the following link:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/minimum-service-delivery-standards-for-work-programme-providers

Work Programme

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what requirements were placed on a Work Programme participant who finds a job without help from their provider to supply proof of employment to the provider; and what sanctions there are for failing to do so.

Esther McVey: DWP and its providers encourage Work Programme participants to share their employment details because, even where an individual has secured work themselves, the provider may be able to offer the claimant both initial support in starting work and ongoing in-work support to help sustain employment. There is, however, no direct requirement for a Work Programme participant to supply proof of employment to a provider once they find a job and they will not be sanctioned for failing to do so.

TRANSPORT

Aviation

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer of 26 March 2014, Official Report, column 245W, on aviation, whether the regional air connectivity fund will be available to both new domestic and new international air routes; and when he plans to publish further information and guidance on eligibility for and the operation of the funding process.

Robert Goodwill: European Union state aid guidelines stipulate that for airports handling fewer than 3 million passengers per year only new routes to and from Common European Aviation Area destinations can be supported by start-up aid. The guidelines also state that start-up aid towards new routes is permissible for airports handling between 3 million and 5 million passengers per year, but will require additional scrutiny to ensure provision of the aid does not have a distortive impact on the market.
	We are aiming to publish the aforementioned guidance on how the Government will interpret the EU state aid guidelines this summer.

Driving Tests

Tom Blenkinsop: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport on how many occasions practical driving tests have been appealed to magistrates and sheriff courts in each year since 2008; how many such appeals were upheld; and for what reasons.

Stephen Hammond: Since 2008 DVSA holds record of 12 practical driving test appeals that have come before the magistrates court; we have no record of any practical driving test appeals that have come before the Sheriff's court. None of these appeals were upheld as detailed in the following table:
	
		
			 Date Place of hearing Under S90 or S133 RTA Outcome 
			 11 June 2008 Croydon S133 Dismissed 
			 27 January 2009 Bexleyheath S90 Dismissed 
			 25 March 2009 Caernarfon S133 Withdrawn 
			 1 June 2009 Unknown S90 Settled without prejudice prior to hearing 
			 15 July 2009 Leicester S90 Dismissed 
			 31 July 2009 Leicester S133 Withdrawn 
			 5 November 2010 Unknown S90 Failed to attend preliminary hearing 
			 28 February 2011 Coventry S133 Withdrawn 
			 13 September 2011 Sheffield S90 Not upheld 
			 26 July 2012 Wakefield S90 Cancelled preliminary hearing 
			 2 August 2012 Bournemouth S90 Withdrawn 
			 11 November 2013 Wolverhampton S133 Withdrawn at hearing on judge’s advice

Driving: Licensing

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport under what endorsement codes new drivers have had their licence revoked by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency during their two year probationary period in each of the last five years.

Stephen Hammond: The information requested is available only from 2010 onwards because details of driving offences and/or convictions prior to this will have been removed from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) record on expiry of the endorsement—normally four years from the date of offence.
	A table has been placed in the Libraries of the House which provides a breakdown of the offence codes that resulted in the driver accumulating six penalty points or more and the driving licence being revoked under the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995 from 1 January 2010 to 29 March 2014.

Driving: Licensing

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many drivers have had their licence revoked by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in each year since 2010.

Stephen Hammond: The following table provides the number of driving licences that have been revoked by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) since 2010:
	
		
			 Licences revoked 
			  Number 
			 2010 96,551 
			 2011 126,263 
			 2012 117,565 
			 2013 112,725 
			 2014 (up to 29 March) 28,199 
			 Total 481,303

Fines

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what fines or penalties his Department has been required to pay HM Treasury (a) following the employment of staff through personal service companies and (b) for any other reason since May 2010.

Stephen Hammond: The Department had a sanction imposed by HM Treasury of £398,500 in March 2014. This took the form of a budget reduction rather than the payment of a fine or penalty.
	This related to the chief executive and finance director at Directly Operated Railways Ltd who were originally engaged off-payroll and brought onto the payroll more than six months after the guidance came into effect.
	There have been no other similar cases in the Department for Transport.

Large Goods Vehicles: Taxation

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many British heavy good vehicles (HGV) are not expected to be fully compensated by the reduction in vehicle excise duty introduced as part of the HGV User Levy; and whether this has changed since estimates were made in 2012.

Robert Goodwill: We estimate that 94% of UK HGVs paying the levy will pay no more than they did before its introduction, taking into account the reductions in vehicle excise duty (VED) that happened at the same time. This figure is the same as was published in the consultation document in January 2012, and discussed during the HGV Road User Levy Act's passage through Parliament.

Large Goods Vehicles: Taxation

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will take steps to work with affected hauliers to avoid the increased cost caused by the reduction in Vehicle Excise Duty introduced as part of the Heavy Goods Vehicle User Levy.

Robert Goodwill: We have worked closely with the UK road freight sector throughout the development of the heavy goods vehicle (HGV) road user levy to ensure that the cost to UK business as a result of paying a combined charge for vehicle excise duty (VED) and HGV levy from 1 April 2014 is minimised, while working within the minimum levels of vehicle excise duty set out in the Eurovignette directive. Furthermore, to keep the administrative burden to UK operators to a minimum, the levy will be paid at the same time as VED and in a single transaction.
	Where costs do rise as a result of the combined levy and VED payment, hauliers have the option to lower the plated weight of the vehicle and thereby reduce the VED they need to pay.

Motor Vehicles: Excise Duties

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the value of uncollected vehicle excise duty was in (a) 2011, (b) 2012 and (c) 2013.

Robert Goodwill: The value of uncollected license duty in Great Britain was estimated to be £40 million in 2011-12 and £35 million in 2013-14, representing 0.7% and 0.6% respectively of the total road tax payable in each year. These estimates were derived from a DFT survey of unlicensed vehicles on the road carried out in alternate years, therefore no equivalent estimate is available for 2012-13.
	Source:
	Vehicle excise duty evasion estimates: 2013

Motor Vehicles: Testing

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what his Department's policy is on (a) the frequency of periodic roadworthiness tests for old vehicles and (b) the stringency of technical roadside inspections for commercial vehicles in line with European Union roadworthiness package adopted by the European Parliament on 12 March 2014.

Stephen Hammond: The Department will be consulting widely on the changes required by the new directive relating to old vehicles with a view to supporting road safety and minimising unnecessary burdens for vehicle owners. This engagement will start in coming months. The new directive regarding technical roadside inspections will be very close to existing practice in Great Britain. If any changes to processes are required these will be adopted after consultation.

Railway Stations: Halton

Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether there are any plans to alter the opening hours of ticket offices in railway stations within Halton constituency.

Stephen Hammond: Currently, we are not aware of Northern's plans to alter the opening hours of ticket offices.
	Any such plans would be an operational matter for franchisee to propose.
	Any proposal to alter the opening hours of a ticket office is governed by the Ticketing Settlement Agreement, details of which can be seen at
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-railway-ticket-office-opening-hours
	and does require consultation with the Department, and Secretary of State approval for major changes.

Railways

Julian Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the number of passenger rail journeys that have been double counted because passengers have used multiple franchises to complete a single journey.

Stephen Hammond: The Secretary of State for Transport, my right hon. Friend the Member for Derbyshire Dales (Mr McLoughlin), has made no estimate of the number of rail passenger journeys that have been double counted. The Office of Rail Regulation is responsible for rail passenger usage statistics and may have an estimate. Their contact details are:
	Address:
	Office of Rail Regulation
	One Kemble Street
	London
	WC2B 4AN
	Telephone: 020 7282 2000
	Email: rail.stats@orr.gov.uk

Railways

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent discussions he has had with the Association of Train Operating Companies on the National Rail Conditions of Carriage.

Stephen Hammond: Information on all ministerial meetings and their purpose is available on the gov.uk website at
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministerial-and-special-adviser-meetings-data-for-department-for-transport

Road Traffic: Rossendale

Jake Berry: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent estimate his Department has made of the level of congestion on roads in Rossendale and Darwen constituency.

Robert Goodwill: Estimates of road congestion levels for parliamentary constituencies are not held centrally.
	We do however hold data at the local authority level. Road congestion is measured in the Department by morning peak speeds, defined as 7am to 10am. In 2013, the average weekday morning peak speeds, on locally managed “A” roads in Blackburn with Darwen (local authority) and Lancashire county, both of which partly contain Rossendale and Darwen constituency, were estimated to be 19.3 and 25.3 miles per hour respectively. The equivalent figure for the whole of England in 2013 was 24.7 miles per hour.
	Equivalent figures for earlier years back to 2007, and all other local highway authorities in England, can be found on the Department for Transport's website at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/279125/cgn0206.xls

Road Traffic: Sussex

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate his Department has made of the level of traffic congestion in Mid Sussex constituency in each year since 1997.

Robert Goodwill: Estimates of road congestion levels for parliamentary constituencies are not held centrally.
	We do however hold data at the local authority level. Road congestion is measured in the Department by morning peak speeds, defined as 7 am to 10 am. In 2013, the average weekday morning peak speed, on locally managed ‘A' roads in West Sussex county (local authority), which contains Mid Sussex constituency, was estimated to be 30.2 miles per hour. The equivalent figure for the whole of England in 2013 was 24.7 miles per hour.
	Equivalent figures for earlier years back to 2007, and all other local highway authorities in England, can be found on the Department for Transport's website at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/279125/cgn0206.xls

Roads: Repairs and Maintenance

Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the maximum amount available to councils who apply for extra funding for potholes is; and what funding his Department provides to tackle potholes in St Albans.

Robert Goodwill: The Department for Transport provides capital funding to local highway authorities from the local maintenance highways maintenance capital block grant and over the four year period from 2011 Hertfordshire county council's allocation is £77.6 million. St Albans falls within Hertfordshire county council's area of responsibility for road maintenance.
	The Department has also allocated additional funding to authorities to help repair roads damaged due to severe weather events, and for Hertfordshire county council this includes £1.446 million in 2010-11, £3.87 million in March 2011 and more recently over £3.62 million in March 2014.
	A £200 million pothole fund was announced in the Budget on 19 March 2014. From this, £168 million is being made available to councils in England through a bidding exercise. Further details on the fund will be made available shortly.

Unmanned Air Vehicles

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what progress has been made by the cross-government working group on remotely piloted aircraft systems. [R]

Robert Goodwill: The Cross Government Working Group has been discussing its draft Terms of Reference (extract copied as follows) and its membership. The focus of its work so far has been to gather information from the relevant Departments to identify areas of common interest requiring collaboration.
	RPAS Cross Government Working Group Vision and Activities
	Vision
	To provide a consistent government message on RPAS issues.
	Objectives
	Inform RPAS-related departmental policies and publish a UK Cross Government vision/strategy for UAS.
	To identify Cross Government synergies and opportunities for efficiencies.
	To identify and address barriers to a successful UK industry base, to support the Government's growth agenda.
	Approach
	Focus for the co-ordination of all UK Government RPAS related activities.
	Developing a better knowledge and a shared understanding of departmental priorities, activities, ambitions and concerns.
	Help industry understand Government needs and vision.
	Identify opportunities.
	Identify key questions.
	Community of users (identification of user requirements).
	UK PoC for RPAS.
	Issues to Address
	Identifying the extent to which the UK can support safe and secure RPAS operations in the UK, including options for the certification of RPAS, pilot licensing, and associated systems.
	Identifying the key characteristics of RPAS infrastructure, including the potential radio spectrum for RPAS operations in the UK.
	Seek to identify common Cross Government user requirements to understand future concepts for shared assets / system procurement and maintenance.
	Determining how the UK might best position itself to take advantage of RPAS industry and technology.
	Engagement
	Understand the potential benefits of RPAS to Government.
	Inform and be informed by active industry associations eg
	Aeronautical and Aerospace and Defence Knowledge Transfer Network Autonomous Systems National technical committee.
	Robotics and Autonomous Systems Special Interest Group.
	Through identification of best practice and successful projects.
	UK industry.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Asylum: Children

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what support her Department offers to local authorities who are caring for asylum seekers who entered care as a child to ensure adequate support is in place when they become care leavers.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office does not have a direct role in this policy area. The Department for Education provides statutory guidance to local authorities about how to support care leavers, including care leavers who are asylum seekers. The guidance makes clear that asylum seekers should receive the same level of support as any other care leaver. The Home Office does, however, provide funding to local authorities to help cover the costs of supporting the young people.

Asylum: Syria

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which local authorities are currently in discussions with her Department on the vulnerable persons relocation scheme for Syrian nationals.

James Brokenshire: A number of local authorities have indicated that they would like to participate in the vulnerable persons relocation scheme, and discussions are ongoing with other local authorities who have expressed an interest. However, as the scheme is based on vulnerability, including women and children at risk, people with medical needs and survivors of torture and violence, it would not be appropriate for us to release details of where individuals are being placed, as this may undermine their privacy and recovery.
	The first beneficiaries of the scheme arrived in the UK on 25 March 2014. This is the result of excellent cooperation with UNHCR, the International Organisation for Migration and local authority services, which has allowed us to identify vulnerable individuals in need of evacuation and ensure that the support they need is in place in the UK.

Borders: Personal Records

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the current timescale for the introduction of the e-borders programme is; and when she intends to announce a preferred bidder for this programme.

James Brokenshire: The activity of the e-borders programme has been absorbed into the border systems programme.
	By the end of this Parliament, the border systems programme aims to:
	Complete resilience of all current business critical systems;
	Develop replacement primary border security systems;
	Provide the capability to support commitments on exit checks;
	Establish a programme for the next generation of Radiological and Nuclear detection (Cyclamen);
	Continue the implementation of second generation e-Gates across the estate;
	Develop and implement new freight targeting capability for Sea Containers;
	Establish contracts to purchase new detection equipment;
	Continue to assure live operations of existing systems.

Deportation: Zimbabwe

Steven Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what her policy is on the deportation of Zimbabwean nationals to Zimbabwe who have no legal right to remain in the UK.

James Brokenshire: We prefer people who have no legal basis of stay in the United Kingdom to leave voluntarily and we may offer an assistance package to help them re-integrate into their home country. For those who choose not to do so, and who have the appropriate travel documentation, we will seek to enforce their removal.

Drugs: Misuse

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent steps she has taken to help local authorities control the sale of legal highs.

Norman Baker: In December 2013 the Home Office published guidance for local authorities which sets out the range of legislative tools they can use to tackle the 'head shops' where legal highs are often sold. This was developed in collaboration with the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Local Government Association and the Trading Standards Institute. The guidance covers offences head shops may be committing under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, the Intoxicating Substances (Supply) Act 1985, and various consumer protection regulations.
	The Home Office also provides local authorities and their trading standards officers with technical and financial support with drug testing through the Forensic Early Warning System. This supports local authorities in their action against the sale of legal highs by helping them to identify the contents of legal high products. To date, we have brought well over 250 substances under control through the use of ‘generic' legislation and temporary class drug orders. We also work closely with law enforcement to tackle this reckless trade. Concerted action, started in November 2013, has so far resulted in over 40 arrests and seizures of new psychoactive substances, including 9 kg by Kent police.
	Last summer we also ran a targeted communications campaign to raise awareness of the risks in taking new psychoactive substances amongst young people; providing information on these substances through our FRANK online service.
	However, we accept that more can be done, hence my announcement on 12 December 2013 of a review by an expert panel to look at how the UK's response to new psychoactive substances can be enhanced beyond the existing measures. The expert panel includes a senior policy adviser from the Local Government Association to inform the work of the panel from a local government perspective. The panel is due to report its recommendations by the end of spring 2014.

Entry Clearances: Overseas Students

Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidance her Department makes available to applicants for Tier 4 student visas on maintenance funding requirements; and what types of accounts or financial instruments count towards meeting this requirement.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office provides guidance on the maintenance funding requirements for Tier 4 student visas to applicants in Appendix C of the Immigration Rules, in the Tier 4 Policy guidance for applicants, and on the Tier 4 application form. The Tier 4 application form also calculates the level of funds an applicant requires and advises them which documents they can submit as evidence.
	The guidance does not specify an exhaustive list of accounts or financial instruments that can be used to satisfy the maintenance requirement. Instead, the Immigration Rules set out the attributes an acceptable account must satisfy. The rules specifically exclude financial instruments such as shares, bonds, credit cards and pension funds from use as acceptable evidence.

EU Nationals

Michael Connarty: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the UK recognises as EU citizens all Latvian and Estonian citizens of Russian ethnic grouping born in Latvia and Estonia at the time of or since the EU accession of those countries.

David Lidington: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
	This issue is a matter for the Estonian and Latvian authorities. Under the EU treaties, citizenship remains a member state competence. The UK can only recognise persons as European citizens if they are so recognised by the member state that issued their travel document.

EU Nationals

Michael Connarty: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how the UK Border Agency designates citizens who live and may have been born in Latvia and Estonia, whom the Governments of Latvia and Estonia continue to designate as Russian by cultural and language testing.

David Lidington: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Department for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
	This issue is a matter for the Estonian and Latvian authorities. Under the EU treaties, citizenship remains a member state competence. The UK can only recognise persons as European citizens if they are so recognised by the member state that issued their travel document.

Human Trafficking: Victim Support Schemes

Graham Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the nationality and gender was of each suspected victim of trafficking referred to the Trafficking Victim Support Scheme operated by the Salvation Army in January 2014; in which (a) region, (b) county, (c) metropolitan district, (d) district council area, (e) city and (f) parliamentary constituency each of the suspected victims was found; which agency referred each person to that scheme; in which town the shelter to which such people were placed for the statutory period was; what continued contact is had with each such victim after they have exited the shelter to avoid re-trafficking; and if she will make a statement.

Karen Bradley: In January, 2014 there were 90 referrals to the Government-funded support service for adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales administered by the Salvation Army.
	In order to ensure that victims cannot be identified, the following tables only provide data at a regional level.
	
		
			 Nationality Number of referrals 
			 Albanian 23 
			 Bulgarian 2 
			 Cameroonian 2 
			 Czech 3 
			 Chinese 1 
			 Ethiopian 1 
			 Ghanaian 2 
			 Hungarian 3 
			 Indian 2 
			 Iranian 1 
			 Iraqi 1 
			 Kenyan 2 
			 Lithuanian 4 
			 Moroccan 1 
			 Nigerian 10 
			 Pakistani 1 
			 Polish 3 
			 Romanian 8 
			 Sierra Leonean 1 
			 Slovakian 7 
			 Sri Lankan 1 
			 Togolese 1 
			 Ugandan 3 
			 Vietnamese 6 
			 Not known 1 
			 Total 90 
		
	
	
		
			 Gender Number of referrals 
			 Female 59 
			 Male 31 
			 Transgender 0 
			 Total 90 
		
	
	
		
			 Region where victim was found Number of referrals 
			 East 4 
			 East Midlands 2 
			 North East 1 
			 North East 3 
			 South 28 
		
	
	
		
			 South East 11 
			 South West 5 
			 Wales 2 
			 West Midlands 12 
			 Yorkshire 19 
			 Not known 3 
			 Total 90 
		
	
	
		
			 Agency type that referred victims Number of referrals 
			 GLA 1 
			 Home Office 27 
			 Legal representative 5 
			 Local authority 5 
			 NGO 18 
			 Other 5 
			 Police 25 
			 Self-referral 4 
			 Total 90 
		
	
	The victim care contract does not require support providers to maintain any form of formal contact after the recovery and reflection period. However, some survivors do maintain informal contact with their support provider, but we do not have this information.

Illegal Immigrants

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many arrests were made for immigration offences as a result of information received from the public in each week in 2013; and how many resulted in (a) prosecution and (b) deportation.

James Brokenshire: The following table outlines the number of arrests made for immigration offences as a result of allegations received from the public in each week in 2013 and how many resulted in (a) prosecution and (b) removal.
	In order to align this answer with the method used for collating the data—“Information received from the public” has been interpreted as allegations and “deportation” has been referred to as removals.
	
		
			 Week Arrests Prosecutions Removals 
			 1 15 — 10 
			 2 75 — 30 
			 3 35 — 15 
			 4 65 — 20 
			 5 60 — 20 
			 6 55 — 20 
			 7 75 — 30 
			 8 65 — 20 
			 9 60 — 25 
			 10 60 — 25 
			 11 75 — 25 
			 12 75 — 30 
			 13 45 — 20 
			 14 55 1— 30 
			 15 55 __ 30 
			 16 80 — 40 
			 17 90 — 55 
			 18 120 1— 55 
			 19 145 — 75 
		
	
	
		
			 20 95 — 50 
			 21 80 1— 40 
			 22 85 1— 35 
			 23 85 5 40 
			 24 90 — 45 
			 25 115 — 50 
			 26 215 5 95 
			 27 120 — 50 
			 28 155 1— 65 
			 29 145 — 60 
			 30 100 — 35 
			 31 120 1— 30 
			 32 80 — 20 
			 33 125 — 40 
			 34 85 — 25 
			 35 80 — 25 
			 36 90 — 25 
			 37 75 — 20 
			 38 75 — 20 
			 39 90 — 30 
			 40 75 — 20 
			 41 95 — 35 
			 42 80 — 15 
			 43 105 — 35 
			 44 55 — 20 
			 45 125 — 30 
			 46 120 — 20 
			 47 100 — 20 
			 48 95 — 5 
			 49 75 — 5 
			 50 95 — 5 
			 51 85 — 1— 
			 52 20 — — 
			 53 10 — — 
			 Grand total 4,535 15 1,585 
			 The number of prosecutions and removals refers directly to the allegations received in that week, but may not have taken place within that timeframe.

Illegal Immigrants: Employment

Christopher Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many illegal workers whose employment has been the subject of penalties pursuant to section 15 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 (a) have been deported and (b) are still in the UK.

James Brokenshire: We are better placed than ever to identify and charge those working illegally.
	We are increasing our multi agency taskforces, improving our intelligence sharing between Departments and creating a strategic intelligence picture and structure. Through the Immigration Bill, we are simplifying the existing illegal working penalty regime making it easier to enforce payment in the civil courts.
	It would not be possible to provide the information requested without linking immigration case outcomes to our data on civil penalties issued on employers. This would incur disproportionate costs.

Immigrants: Detainees

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people held in immigration removal centres on 13 March 2014 had been held for (a) between 28 and 60 days, (b) between 60 and 365 days, (c) more than 12 months and (d) more than 18 months.

James Brokenshire: Figures on people held in detention are collated as at the last day of each quarter, on 31 March, 30 June, 30 September and 31 December of each year and published in Immigration Statistics quarterly releases: Immigration Statistics: October to December 2013, table dt_11_q from the GOV.UK website:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release
	Figures as at the 31 March 2014 will be published in Immigration Statistics January to March 2014 on 22 May 2014.
	Published figures on people detained in the United Kingdom solely under Immigration Act powers include those held in short term holding facilities, pre departure accommodation and immigration removal centres. Figures exclude those held in police cells, Prison Service establishments, short term holding rooms at ports and airports (for less than 24 hours), and those recorded as detained under both criminal and immigration powers and their dependants.

Immigrants: Detainees

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which prisons are holding individuals solely under immigration powers.

James Brokenshire: The prisons detailed as follows are currently holding individuals in England and Wales solely under immigration powers.
	Ashfield
	Bedford
	Belmarsh
	Birmingham
	Brinsford
	Bristol
	Brixton
	Bronzefield
	Bullingdon
	Bullwood Hall
	Bure
	Cardiff
	Chelmsford
	Dartmoor
	Doncastor
	Durham
	Elmley
	Erlestoke
	Exeter
	Featherstone
	Feltham
	Forest Bank
	Garth
	Glen Parva
	Guys Marsh
	Haverigg
	Hewell
	High Down
	Highpoint
	Holloway
	Holme House
	Huntercombe
	Isis
	Leeds
	Lewes
	Lincoln
	Littlehey
	Liverpool
	Maidstone
	Manchester
	Moorland
	Mount
	New Hall
	Norwich
	Nottingham
	Oakwood
	Parc
	Pentonville
	Peterborough
	Ranby
	Risley
	Rye Hall
	Stafford
	Stoke Heath
	Styal
	Swansea
	Swinfen Hall
	Thameside
	Usk
	Wakefield
	Wandsworth
	Wayland
	Whatton
	Woodhill
	Wormwood Scrubs
	Wymott
	Verne
	The prisons detailed as follows are currently holding individuals in Scotland under immigration powers:
	Barlinnie
	Edinburgh
	Cornton Vale
	Dumfries
	Notes:
	1. All details quoted have been derived from management information and are therefore provisional and subject to change.
	2. The details have been extracted from NOMS and Home Office reports which are taken from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
	3. Data generated on 31 March 2014.

Immigrants: Pregnant Women

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many pregnant women are held in immigration detention.

James Brokenshire: If a pregnant woman chooses to inform the Home Office of her pregnancy, the detail would be held on her medical file which is a confidential record between patient and doctor. The Home Office does not collate this information centrally.
	Care provided to pregnant women in detention is appropriate to their individual circumstances and all detainees have access to health care facilities and medical advice at all times.
	Pregnant women are only detained in exceptional circumstances where their removal is imminent and medical advice does not suggest that the baby is due before the woman’s expected removal date. Women who are less than 24 weeks pregnant may also be detained as part of the asylum fast-track process.

Offences against Children: Internet

Andrea Leadsom: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps she is taking to work with police forces across the country to protect children from online sexual exploitation. [Official Report, 9 July 2014, Vol. 584, c. 3-4MC.]

Norman Baker: The Government is committed to preventing online child abuse. Details of the Government plans to strengthen the protection of children from online sexual exploitation were published last summer in the Action Plan of the National Group to tackle Sexual Violence Against Children and Vulnerable People. Copies will be placed in the House Library and can be found at the following link;
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/230443/Sexual_Violence_against_Children_ and_Vulnerable_People.pdf
	The Child Exploitation Online Protection Command of the National Crime Agency (NCA-CEOP) is the UK's national law enforcement agency committed to preventing and tackling the sexual abuse of children both online and offline. In 2012/13, NCA-CEOP safeguarded and protected 790 children, an increase of 85% on the previous year.
	The NCA-CEOP Command works closely with all 43 police forces in England and Wales, Police Scotland and PSNI.
	In January 2013, the police created a National Child Sexual Exploitation Action Plan which sought to improve the police response to all forms of CSE both online and offline. Each force has now completed a benchmarking exercise, allowing them to understand and improve their capability to deal with CSE.
	HMIC are close to completing an inspection into the policing of online sexual exploitation and should be publishing their findings in the near future. This will help us identify best practice and also where the service needs to improve to deal with the proliferation of indecent images on the internet and grooming.

Police: Demonstrations

Adrian Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidance her Department provides to the police on managing public protests; and what discussions she has had with chief constables and the IPCC on the management of such protests.

Damian Green: Managing public protests is an operational matter for the police. Guidance on the management of public protests is contained in the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice.
	The Secretary of State for the Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), and Home Office Ministers regularly meet with chief constables and the Independent Police Complaints Commission on a range of policing matters as part of the process of policy development, delivery and assurance.

Procurement

Sheila Gilmore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) 20 highest and (b) 20 lowest value contracts awarded by her Department were in each financial year since 2009-10.

James Brokenshire: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, my right hon. Friend the Member for Horsham (Mr Maude), on 2 April 2014, Official Report, column 721W.

Riot Control Weapons

Julian Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of (a) the cost of one water cannon, (b) annual storage costs of one water cannon and (c) annual maintenance costs of one water cannon.

Damian Green: The Secretary of State for the Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) has now received the request to authorise water cannon for use by the police in England and Wales. She is considering this request and will announce her decision in due course and lay the relevant information in the House Library.

Riot Control Weapons

Julian Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the maximum use period is of (a) a new water cannon and (b) a used water cannon of the type the Metropolitan Police Service wishes to purchase from Germany.

Damian Green: The Secretary of State for the Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) has now received the request to authorise water cannon for use by the police in England and Wales. She is considering this request and will announce her decision in due course and lay the relevant information in the House Library.

Riot Control Weapons

Julian Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the potential of water cannon to cause (a) temporary and (b) permanent injury.

Damian Green: The Home Secretary has now received the request to authorise water cannon for use by the police in England and Wales. She is considering this request and will announce her decision in due course and lay the relevant information in the House Library.

Riot Control Weapons

Julian Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what draft guidance on the instances where water cannon may be deployed has been (a) written and (b) consulted on.

Damian Green: The Home Secretary has now received the request to authorise water cannon for use by the police in England and Wales. She is considering this request and will announce her decision in due course and lay the relevant information in the House Library.

Schengen Agreement

Angus MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of air passengers showing passports to UK Border agents are from Schengen area countries.

James Brokenshire: This information is not available from Border Force systems.
	Additionally, it is not in the interests of border and national security to disclose either the specific information held on Home Office systems, or details relating to the volumes of data.

Theft: Dogs

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many gun dogs have been stolen in each of the last three years in each region in England.

Norman Baker: The information requested is not available centrally.
	It is not possible to identify offences of gun dog thefts from the police recorded crime statistics collected by the Home Office.

Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many women detained at Yarl's Wood Detention Centre have been held for (a) four years or more, (b) three years or more and (c) two years or more.

James Brokenshire: As at 31 December 2013, the latest date for which figures are available, no women were detained at Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre for longer than two years.

JUSTICE

Alternatives to Prison

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been subject to (a) restorative justice and (b) non-committal to prison in each of the last three years; and for what range of offence.

Jeremy Wright: The Government is committed to ensuring that restorative justice is victim-focused, of a good quality and available at all stages of the criminal justice system across England and Wales.
	Restorative justice is a process that can be used at any stage of the criminal justice system, either alongside or as part of a formal out of court disposal or sentence. Restorative justice is potentially available for any offence, provided both the victim and offender consent and have been assessed as suitable by a trained facilitator. The use of restorative justice should not lead to offenders escaping punishment and we expect crimes of a serious nature to continue to be progressed through the courts.
	Information about the numbers of victims or offenders who are invited to participate in a restorative justice programme, or take up that offer, is not collated centrally. Statistics on non-custodial and custodial sentences are published quarterly by the Ministry of Justice and are available at
	www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/statistics

Driving Offences

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people in each police force area have been caught speeding and received points on their driving licence in each of the last five years.

Damian Green: The maximum penalty for speeding is a fine of up to £1,000 and for speeding on a motorway, £2,500. The courts also have the power to disqualify the offender from driving and must in any event endorse the offender's licence by between three and six penalty points. Alternatively, if the police decide that the nature of the offence was less serious, they may offer the motorist the opportunity to receive a fixed penalty notice instead of prosecution. If a fixed penalty is issued, the driver may instead chose to plead innocence or mitigating factors in court, and if convicted, any sentence will be decided within the maximum penalty limit and in line with sentencing guidelines.
	The number of persons receiving endorsements only on their driving licence for speeding offences at all courts in England and Wales by police force area from 2008 to 2012 (latest data available) can be viewed in the following table.
	Please note that court proceedings statistics for the year 2013 are planned to be published by the Ministry of Justice in May 2014.
	
		
			 Offenders convicted of a speeding offence at all courts, receiving endorsements (points) only on their driving licence by police force area, 2008 to 2012, England and Wales1,2 
			  2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 
			 Avon and Somerset 3,720 4,292 3,791 4,446 2,408 
			 Bedfordshire 1,528 1,821 1,261 1,078 2,237 
			 Cambridgeshire 1,528 2,902 2,153 2,240 3,314 
			 Cheshire 2,597 2,495 2,704 2,060 2,100 
			 Cleveland 741 517 628 1,111 1,255 
			 Cumbria 1,692 1,782 1,326 1,075 1,040 
			 Derbyshire 1,916 1,435 854 808 961 
			 Devon and Cornwall 2,373 2,506 1,693 1,703 2,176 
			 Dorset 1,779 1,587 1,586 1,411 1,298 
			 Durham 591 495 387 557 430 
			 Essex 4,948 3,912 3,252 3,227 1,636 
			 Gloucestershire 544 664 324 658 662 
			 Greater Manchester 4,408 4,067 6,388 8,009 5,593 
			 Hampshire 4,031 3,544 3,127 3,877 2,663 
			 Hertfordshire 2,244 3,125 2,688 2,080 2,351 
			 Humberside 395 3,002 2,462 2,522 2,712 
			 Kent 1,710 2,448 2,837 2,778 3,162 
			 Lancashire 6,842 5,501 4,238 4,497 4,148 
			 Leicestershire 2,337 2,480 1,756 1,295 2,127 
		
	
	
		
			 Lincolnshire 3,788 3,102 2,035 2,655 3,168 
			 London, City of3 46 501 307 711 — 
			 Merseyside 1,901 1,599 2,374 2,286 1,999 
			 Metropolitan police3 9,184 9,350 7,925 8,182 8,906 
			 Norfolk 2,329 2,424 2,500 1,974 2,188 
			 Northamptonshire 1,415 1,311 1,267 774 550 
			 Northumbria 3,096 2,611 2,784 2,236 2,508 
			 North Yorkshire 2,714 2,015 1,385 1,355 1,532 
			 Nottinghamshire 2,780 2,837 2,528 2,424 2,948 
			 South Yorkshire 1,258 1,528 2,485 3,051 3,410 
			 Staffordshire 2,797 2,446 2,941 2,618 3,878 
			 Suffolk 3,287 3,235 1,813 2,618 2,124 
			 Surrey 2,529 2,443 1,973 2,478 3,437 
			 Sussex 536 2,730 2,440 2,337 2,807 
			 Thames Valley 4,358 5,956 5,005 4,672 5,996 
			 Warwickshire 889 1,152 1,761 2,537 2,274 
			 West Mercia 1,988 1,744 2,236 2,489 2,033 
			 West Midlands 3,260 3,942 3,707 1,998 1,364 
			 West Yorkshire 4,057 4,332 4,045 3,275 4,281 
			 Wiltshire 3,641 4,148 3,305 708 573 
			 Dyfed Powys 1,104 957 908 1,100 1,437 
			 Gwent 399 1,063 1,175 1,248 1,757 
			 North Wales 2,365 3,266 2,860 1,613 1,397 
			 South Wales 1,985 1,995 2,011 2,539 5,050 
			       
			 England and Wales 107,630 115,262 105,225 103,310 107,890 
			 1 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. 2 Excludes data for Cardiff magistrates court for April, July and August 2008. 3 From 2012 it is no longer possible to separately identify City of London magistrates court data from Metropolitan police data. The 2012 total shown for Metropolitan police therefore includes City of London convictions. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice.

Female Genital Mutilation

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been convicted of an offence under sections 1, 2 or 3 of the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 where the offence was committed against a child in each of the last four years.

Damian Green: No one has been convicted of an offence under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 in England and Wales since the Act came into force. However, the Director of Public Prosecutions announced the first prosecutions for female genital mutilation on 21 March.
	The Government is committed to tackling and preventing the harmful and unacceptable practice of female genital mutilation. As part of this cross-government work, the Ministry of Justice is already considering suggestions made by the Director for strengthening the criminal law on female genital mutilation to make successful prosecutions more likely.
	We welcome the Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry into this area and will give careful consideration to any additional recommendations for legislative change that may be made by the Committee when it reports in due course.

Homicide: Victim Support Schemes

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  whether his Department's new national homicide service will provide support to victims involved in a homicide that took place abroad prior to November 2010;
	(2)  pursuant to the contribution of the hon. Member for Ashford, of 4 March 2014, Official Report, columns 317-20WH, on fatal domestic violence, if he will make it his policy that the New Homicide Scheme supports victims involved in a homicide prior to April 2010;
	(3)  pursuant to the contribution of the Minister for Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims of 5 March 2014, Official Report, columns 319-20W, on fatal domestic violence, what estimate he has made of the number of people bereaved before 2010 who will no longer receive support as a result of the scope of the new Homicide Scheme not covering cases predating the current service.

Damian Green: We are committed to making sure that there is no loss of support for those bereaved prior to 2010. I have listened to representations made by police and crime commissioners and the Victims' Commissioner that our support for those families bereaved pre-2010 should be continued, and I will write to the hon. Gentleman shortly on how this is being taken forward.

Offences Against Children

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been convicted of an offence contrary to sections 142 or 143 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, where the offence was committed against a child, in each of the last four years, broken down by year.

Damian Green: The number of offenders found guilty of offences under section 12 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956, as amended by Section 143 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, where the victim is not specifically identified as an adult, in England and Wales from 2008 to 2012 can be viewed in the table. The proportion of offenders receiving immediate custody has increased significantly since 2008.
	Section 142 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 amended section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956, and findings of guilt for offences of rape of those under the age of 16 under that Act cannot be disaggregated from findings of guilt for such offences of rape under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 provided to the hon. lady in respect to PQs 193577 and 193582.
	
		
			 Defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty and sentenced at all courts for offences under Section 12 of the Sexual Offences Act 19561, as amended by Section 143 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 19942, England and Wales, 2008 to 20123, 4 
			 Outcome 20085 2009 2010 2011 2012 
			 Proceeded against 21 8 11 3 10 
		
	
	
		
			 Found guilty 28 26 39 36 43 
			 Sentenced 28 26 39 36 43 
			       
			 of which      
			 Immediate custody 26 24 36 36 42 
			 Custody rate6 (percentage) 93 92 92 100 98 
			 1 Section 12 of the Sexual Offences Act described buggery offences; the stats here are presented where it was not specifically indentified if the victim was 16 or over 2 Act reduced homosexual age of consent from 21 to 18. 3 The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. 4 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. 5 Excludes data for Cardiff magistrates court for April, July and August 2008. 6 The proportion of offenders sentenced who are sentenced to immediate custody. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice

Offences Against Children

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been convicted of an offence contrary to section 8 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 in each of the last four years.

Damian Green: Our laws in these areas are robust and clear. The Government takes very seriously all matters relating to sexual abuse including the abuse of children.
	The number of offenders found guilty of offences under section 8 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 in England and Wales from 2008 to 2012 can be viewed in the table.
	Court proceedings data for England and Wales for 2013 are planned for publication as part of the Criminal Justice Statistics publication in May 2014.
	
		
			 Offenders found guilty at all courts of offences under section 8 of the Sexual Offences Act 20031, England and Wales, 2008 to 20122, 3 
			  Number 
			 20084 80 
			 2009 77 
			 2010 93 
			 2011 113 
			 2012 96 
			 1 Section 8 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 describes offences of causing or inciting children under 13 to engage in sexual activity. 2 The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. 3 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. 4 Excludes data for Cardiff magistrates court for April, July and August 2008. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services-Ministry of Justice.

Offences Against Children

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been convicted of an offence under section 128 of the Mental Health Act 1959 where the offence was committed against a child in each of the last four years.

Damian Green: Section 128 of the Mental Health Act 1959 was repealed in 2004. There have been no convictions in any of the last four years. Prosecutions are now brought under modernised legislation contained in the Sex Offenders Act 2003.

Offensive Weapons

Nick de Bois: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what (a) sentences and (b) other outcomes were received by people aged (i) under 18 and (ii) 18 and over who were prosecuted for carrying a bladed or pointed article in a public place in each year since 2008; and if he will make a statement.

Jeremy Wright: Since 2009 there has been an overall decline in knife crime. A higher proportion of people are going to prison for knife possession than in previous years and sentences are getting longer. While sentencing remains a matter for the independent judiciary we continue to keep this area of the law under close scrutiny. We have already introduced new offences of threatening with a knife in a public place or school under the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. We are currently legislating in the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill to make it clear that cautions should no longer be used for knife possession offences for adults and we are exploring further changes to how we tackle knife offences.
	The latest available figures on the outcomes by age group for offences involving carrying a knife or offensive weapon are available in table 2 and annex table 1 of the Knife Possession Sentencing Quarterly Brief October-December 2013 which was published on 13 March 2014. The quarterly bulletin is available from the Ministry of Justice website at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/knife-possession-sentencing-quarterly
	The figures provided have been drawn from an extract of the Police National Computer (PNC) data held by the Department. The PNC holds details of all convictions and cautions given for recordable offences committed in England and Wales. In addition, as with any large scale recording system the PNC is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Offensive Weapons: Sentencing

Nick de Bois: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will bring forward legislative proposals to allow mandatory sentencing in cases of carrying an article with blade or point of offensive weapon; and if he will make a statement.

Jeremy Wright: Possession of an offensive weapon or bladed article is a serious offence which carries a maximum four year custodial sentence. This Government has already introduced new offences for threatening with a knife, which carries a minimum mandatory custodial sentence for adults and 16 to 17-year-olds in the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2013. More recently we made it clear that cautions for adults can not be used for knife possession offences, and are legislating in the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill to put statutory restrictions around their use.
	Knife crime continues to fall, with a higher proportion of offenders going to prison for knife possession than in previous years and average custodial sentences getting longer.
	While this is encouraging, this Government continues to keep this area of the law under close scrutiny and if further action is necessary it will bring forward proposals.

Open Prisons

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners who are in open prisons are serving (a) a life sentence and (b) an indeterminate sentence for public protection.

Jeremy Wright: Depending on the length of tariff and the risk they pose, indeterminate sentenced prisoners (ISPs—both those serving life and imprisonment for public protection sentences) move through their sentence via a series of progressive transfers into lower security establishments in the closed estate and then usually into open conditions. The purpose of any placement in open conditions is for such prisoners' risks to be tested in less stringent conditions in order to inform the Parole Board's consideration as to whether it is safe to release them into the community. It is also an important part of the offender's rehabilitation. The decision to transfer ISPs to open conditions is a categorisation decision which is a matter for the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State may take this decision after seeking advice from the Parole Board or executively where the prisoners may demonstrate exceptional progress.
	However, there is nothing automatic about progress from open conditions to eventual release. Rather, the period in open prison will serve as an important time to test the prisoner and will help inform the Parole Board's decision whether the offenders risk is such that it may be safely managed in the community.
	For many prisoners, in particular those such as ISPs who have spent a considerable amount of time in custody; these are essential components for successful reintegration in the community and therefore an important factor in protecting the public. To release these prisoners directly from a closed prison without the resettlement benefits of the open estate would undoubtedly lead to higher levels of post-release reoffending.
	The main purpose of open conditions is to test prisoners in conditions more similar to those that they will face in the community. It also enables them to develop their plans for eventual release. Time spent in open prisons affords prisoners the opportunity to find work, re-establish family ties, reintegrate into the community and ensure housing needs are met. Open prisons are the most effective means of ensuring that prisoners are subject to testing, with appropriate risk assessment to ensure the protection of the public, before they are released into the community. Once tariff has expired, an ISP's continued detention is justified only so long as it is necessary for the protection of the public.
	Public protection is the priority and the Board will take into account a range of factors when assessing whether an offender's risk is reduced sufficiently, in order that they can be managed in open conditions or on licence in the community. These might include the completion of offence-related courses, a sustained period of good custodial behaviour, access to appropriate and stable accommodation, access to education, training and employment, and support from professionals as well as family and friends. The Parole Board would not recommend a prisoner's transfer to open conditions unless they considered it safe to do so. Prisoners located in open prison conditions have been rigorously risk assessed and categorised as being of a low enough risk to the public to warrant their placement in an open prison.
	The requested information is provided in the following table.
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
	
		
			 Indeterminate sentenced prisoners held in the open estate1 by type of sentence, 31 December 2013, England and Wales 
			  Number 
			 IPP 599 
			 Life 643 
			   
			 Total 1,242 
			 1 Based on predominant function of the prison and therefore excludes prisoners held in open wings of closed establishments.

Police and Crime Commissioners

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when the budgets for the criminal justice and emergency services will be devolved to police and crime commissioners; and what the total budget that police and crime commissioners will take over for England and Wales is.

Damian Green: holding answer 24 March 2014
	I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Home Department.
	There are no current plans to transfer responsibility, and budgets for the criminal justice system or the emergency services to police and crime commissioners.
	The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act contains a duty to co-operate for police and crime commissioners and criminal justice partners which sets the framework for commissioners to play a substantial local leadership role. Commissioners are taking a prominent role in local justice matters and are, for example, taking seats (sometimes even as chair) on their local criminal justice boards.
	The Government is further extending the remit of PCCs who will assume responsibility for commissioning local victims’ services in October 2014—complementing their other responsibilities to respond to local views and needs when drawing up plans to cut crime.
	The Government is also driving collaboration between local emergency services to deliver more effective services and better value for money for the public. It is providing funding through the Home Office Police Innovation Fund and DCLG’s Transformation Challenge Award and Fire Transformation Fund to support emergency services collaboration projects.

Prison Accommodation

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice on which occasions prisons (a) reached and (b) exceeded their (i) occupational capacity and (ii) in-use certified normal accommodation in each month since September 2013.

Jeremy Wright: Individual prison population and capacity information is published monthly on the Ministry of Justice website at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prison-population-figures-2014
	Population and capacity figures for March 2014 will be published on the Government website on Friday 11 April.

Prison Service

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice on how many occasions (a) workshops and (b) classrooms have been closed in each prison in England and Wales since 1 September 2013 due to staff shortages; and on how many occasions wings have been locked for (i) a half day, (ii) a full day and (iii) a lunch period for that reason since that date.

Jeremy Wright: The information regarding the number of occasions on which (a) workshops and (b) classrooms have been closed in each prison in England and Wales since 1 September 2013 due to staff shortages; and on how many occasions wings have been locked for (i) a half day, (b) a full day and (c) a lunch period in that time and for that reason, is not collated centrally and is collected in different formats in each prison. The processes required to collect this data would incur disproportionate costs.

Prisoners: Foreign Nationals

Philip Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answers of 5 February 2014, Official Report, column 293W, 28 February 2014, Official Report, column 548W and 31 March 2014 on prisoners: foreign nationals, which three countries have the next largest number of foreign nationals in UK prisons; and what steps he is taking to return those offenders to secure detention in their own countries.

Jeremy Wright: Data on the nationality and numbers of Foreign National Offenders {FNOs) held in custody is published in the quarterly offender management statistics.
	Table 1.6
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/276084/prison-population-tables-q3-2013.xls
	The countries with the 10th, 11th and 12th largest populations of FNOs in UK prisons on 31 December 2013 are:
	10. Bangladesh (276)
	11. Albania (275)
	12. Vietnam (247)
	We do not currently have a Prisoner Transfer Arrangement (PTA) with Bangladesh. We signed a compulsory PTA with Albania last year and hope to see the first transfers soon. We have a voluntary PTA with Vietnam and made three prisoner transfers under this arrangement last year.
	The Prisoner Transfer process is just one mechanism for removing Foreign National Offenders (FNOs). The number of FNOs deported under the Early Removal Scheme (ERS) has increased under this Government. In 2013, we removed nearly 2,000 FNOs under ERS and under the Tariff Expired Removal Scheme (TERS), which we introduced in May 2012, we have removed 237 FNOs to date.

Prisoners: Foreign Nationals

Alan Reid: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many Indian nationals there are serving a prison sentence in England and Wales.

Jeremy Wright: As of 31 December 2013, the latest period for which figures are available, there were 223 Indian nationals serving a prison sentence in England and Wales.
	All foreign national offenders (FNOs) sentenced to custody are referred to the Home Office for them to consider deportation at the earliest possible opportunity.

Prisoners: Publications

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment he has made of the effect of prisoners' access to books on (a) prisoners' educational achievements, (b) prisoners' behaviour and (c) reoffending rates; and what steps he is taking to improve prisoners' access to books.

Jeremy Wright: Our assessment is that education and access to books is very important in the rehabilitation of prisoners. That is why the National Offender Management Service works closely with the Shannon Trust to support schemes such as Toe by Toe', which includes peer mentoring to improve reading levels. Every prison has a library, to which every prisoner has access.
	Prisoners may also buy books with their own money to which they have access. Up to 12 books may be held by prisoners in their cell at any one time and additional volumes may be stored locally at the prison.

Prisoners: Uniforms

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will publish his Department's equality impact assessment of its policy on uniforms for male and female prisoners.

Jeremy Wright: The requirement for prisoners to wear uniform is set out in the Incentives and Earned Privileges national policy framework, Prison Service Instruction 30/2013. During the review of this policy in 2013 an Equality Impact Assessment was completed and I have placed a copy in the Libraries of both Houses.

Prisons: Disciplinary Proceedings

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prison staff were dismissed in 2013 for conducting inappropriate relationships with prisoners.

Jeremy Wright: The National Offender Management Service is committed to dealing with all allegations of misconduct swiftly and robustly. The NOMS Conduct and Discipline Policy sets out the standards of behaviour that all staff are expected to maintain. Where these standards are found to have been breached the disciplinary process set out in the NOMS Conduct and Discipline policy is applied.
	From 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2013 there were a total of 11 NOMS employees dismissed for having an “Inappropriate Relationship with a prisoner / ex prisoner”.

Prisons: Publications

Ian Mearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice which books are available to be bought from the shop in prisons in England.

Jeremy Wright: Prisoners are able to purchase any book through prison retail, other than where there are reasons to believe the book is not suitable. It is for Governors locally to determine when a particular book is not suitable, based on the prisoner's risk profile and the nature of the book itself. There is no centrally approved list of books.

Probation

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he expects to announce the finalists for each community rehabilitation company; and if he will make a statement.

Jeremy Wright: The contract winners for each community rehabilitation company will be announced by the end of 2014. Bids to run the community rehabilitation companies (CRCs) have yet to be submitted, but are expected in June 2014. In mid-December 2013, the 30 bidders who passed the first stage of the competition to bid for the rehabilitation contracts were announced and approximately one-third of the bidders included a potential mutual organisation within their consortium. A list of the bidders who have been successful at this stage can be found at:
	https://www.justice.gov.uk/transforming-rehabilitation/competition

Probation

David Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many bids have been received for each community rehabilitation company; how many of those were (a) successful and (b) discounted; and if he will make a statement.

Jeremy Wright: The contract winners for each Community Rehabilitation Company will be announced by the end of 2014. Bids to run the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) have yet to be submitted, but are expected in June 2014. In mid December 2013, the 30 bidders who passed the first stage of the competition to bid for the rehabilitation contracts were announced and approximately one third of the bidders included a potential mutual organisation within their consortium. A list of the bidders who have been successful at this stage can be found at:
	https://www.justice.gov.uk/transforming-rehabilitation/competition

Procurement

Christopher Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what his Department’s 10 largest contracts let since the financial year 2010-11 are; what savings have been made in such contracts; what the level of overspend or underspend was in each such contract; and what steps his Department has taken to monitor the performance of each supplier of such contract following the contract award.

Jeremy Wright: The Ministry of Justice has taken a number of steps to improve commercial capability across the Department. We regularly review suppliers’ performance against key performance indicators and have recently embarked on a programme aimed at introducing a more robust approach to contract management, to ensure that contracts deliver best possible value for the taxpayer.
	The following table features the 10 largest contracts let by the Ministry of Justice since the financial year 2010-11, and provides details of savings and of any under- or overspend in each financial year.
	
		
			 Contract description Contracting party Savings made and level of overspend or underspend 
			 Private finance initiative for design, construction, financing and management of HMP Thameside BWP Project Services Limited HMP Thameside 2010/11 = Not operational 2011/12 = £57k underspend against budget 2012/13 = £61k underspend against budget This prison was a new build and the business case was approved on the basis that it offered the lowest net present cost when compared with other options. There are no previous costs against which to calculate savings. 
			 Provision of custodial services at HMP Birmingham G4S Regional Management (UK&I) Ltd HMP Birmingham 2010/11 = Public sector management 2011/12 = £193k overspend against budget 2012/13 = £76k overspend against budget The most recent analysis indicates that over the lifetime of the contracts, the first round of prison competitions (Birmingham, Doncaster and Buckley Hall) will deliver total real-terms savings of £210.5m, comprising a reduction in prison operating costs of £173.6m, savings in MOJ maintenance costs valued at £31.8m and a benefit relating to the transfer of buildings insurance risk valued at £5.1m. This assessment is based on actual financial outcomes from the contracts. 
			 Provision of Custodial Services at HMP Oakwood (previously known as Featherstone II) G4S Regional Management (UK&I) Ltd HMP Oakwood 2010/11 = Not operational 2011/12 = Not operational 2012/13 = £6.6m overspend against budget1 
			 Provision of Custodial Services at HMP/YOI Doncaster Serco HMP Doncaster 2010/11 = Not operational 2011/12 = £500k underspend against budget 2012/13 = £182k underspend against budget The most recent analysis indicates that over the lifetime of the contracts, the first round of prison competitions (Birmingham, Doncaster and Buckley Hall) will deliver total real-terms savings of £210.5m, comprising a reduction in prison operating costs of £173.6m, savings in MOJ maintenance costs valued at £31.8m and a benefit relating to the transfer of buildings insurance risk valued at £5.1m. This assessment is based on actual financial outcomes from the contracts. 
		
	
	
		
			 Provision of ICT Services for NOMS with HPES UK Ltd HP Enterprise Services UK Ltd The contract for NOMS ICT Services (NICTS) began in January 2013 and is currently underspent by £1.2m. The underspend is cumulative, having occurred across 2012/13 and 2013/14. The NICTS contract is expected to save MOJ approximately £30m over its three-year term and the parties continue to collaborate to drive out further savings. 
			 Provision of Prison Catering 3663 The contract began in October 2012 and there was a small underspend of approximately £1.1k in its first year of operation. We have realised savings of approximately £3.7m as a result of the retender. 
			 Facilities Management for HMCTS London, South East, South West, MOJ HQ MITIE Justice Limited The contract began in February 2012. There is no over- or underspend recorded. This contract changed the service delivery model for facilities management across HMCTS. Historically such services were provided through a number of disaggregated contracts. Services are now being delivered through a single supplier, resulting in savings from reduced overheads and increased efficiencies. Total cumulative savings on the contract so far amount to approximately £20.9m. 
			 Provision of the Prisoner Escort and Custody Service Area 2 – London and East of England Serco The contract started in August 2011. In August 2013, when irregularities in Serco’s reporting against the contract were discovered, the contract was placed under administrative supervision, with a senior MOJ official overseeing its operation. 2011/12 = £145k overspend against budget 2012/13 = £681k overspend against budget 2013/14 = £1.7m underspend against budget The overspend in 2011/12 and 2012/13 was against an underprovision of budgets. The underspend in 2013/14 was due to fluctuations in the number of prisoners transported and also lower indexation. The total cumulative savings for the contracts relating to Areas 1, 2, 3 and 4 so far amount to approximately £87m. The savings are measured against previous contract cost. 
			 Provision of the Prisoner Escort and Custody Service Area 1 – South West and South East GEO/Amey PECS Contract started in August 2011. 2011/12 = £120k overspend against budget 2012/13 = £1.3m overspend against budget 2013/14 = £151k underspend against budget The overspend in 2011/12 and 2012/13 was against an under provision of budgets. The underspend in 2013/14 was due to fluctuations in the number of prisoners transported and also lower indexation. The total cumulative savings for the contracts relating to Areas 1, 2, 3 and 4 so far amount to approximately £87m. The savings are measured against previous contract cost. 
			 Provision of the Prisoner Escort and Custody Service Area 4 – North West, West Midlands and Wales GEO/Amey PECS Contract started in August 2011. 2011/12 = £572k overspend against budget 2012/13 = £602k overspend against budget 2013/14 =£1.0m underspend against budget The overspend in 2011/12 and 2012/13 was against an under provision of budgets. The underspend in 2013/14 was due to fluctuations in the number of prisoners transported and also lower indexation. The total cumulative savings for the contracts relating to Areas 1, 2, 3 and 4 so far amount to approximately £87m. The savings are measured against previous contract cost. 
			 1 Fixed costs of £7.2m were included in year one of the contract. When profiling the budget, it had been anticipated that these costs would be spread over the fifteen-year life of the contract and therefore approximately £480k was budgeted in 2012/13. Subsequent accounting treatment meant that the full £7.2m was charged to 2012/13, thereby creating an overspend against budget. This was purely a question of accounting treatment and timing. It will have no impact on overall cost over the life of the contract. This prison was a new build, and as such there are no previous costs to calculate savings against. The business case was approved on the basis that it offered the lowest net present cost when compared with other options.

Procurement

Sheila Gilmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the (a) 20 highest and (b) 20 lowest value contracts awarded by his Department were in each financial year since 2009-10.

Jeremy Wright: Under this Government's transparency programme, contracts are published on Contracts Finder which is available at:
	https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder

Rail Travel

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department spent on first-class rail travel by (a) Ministers and (b) officials in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012 and (iv) 2013.

Damian Green: The Secretary of State has put in place a ban on all first class rail. An exception to this ban is to support the needs of some disabled staff in carrying out their duties, where it is reasonable to do so, and which exceptionally justify the use of first class rail travel.
	The following table provides details of spend on first class rail travel for Ministers and officials for the calendar years 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. This shows a reduction of £1,589,275, 80%, over the period.
	
		
			 Calendar year Spend (£) 
			 20091 3,989,713 
			 2010 1,988,205 
			 2011 421,346 
			 2012 352,927 
			 2013 398,930 
			 1 Spend information is available only for the period April to December 2009. 
		
	
	In addition to the reduction in spend on first class rail travel, the total MoJ spend on travel has fallen by more than 40% since 2009, a saving of more than £9 million. The spend on first class rail and air travel in the financial year 2009-10 was £4.4 million.

Reoffenders

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  how many instances of breaches by offenders released on licence there were in each year since 2002;
	(2)  how many instances of offenders remaining at large after (a) recall and (b) temporary release there were in each year since 2002.

Jeremy Wright: For offenders the period of post-release supervision on licence forms an integral part of a sentence imposed by the court. The overriding priority is to protect the public from harm and prevent re-offending.
	The recall of offenders on licence is designed to protect the public by removing an offender from the community who, by breaching his licence conditions, is considered to present an increased risk of re-offending and where the Probation Service recommends that this is the most effective response to the increased risk, in order to protect the public.
	Behaviour that can result in recall includes: the commission of further offences or charges being laid; behaviour which indicates that further offending is imminent; or breaches of licence conditions which undermine the Probation Service's ability to provide effective supervision, such as not living at the address stipulated on the licence or failing to attend probation appointments.
	Once recalled, it is the responsibility of the police to apprehend offenders, although all agencies closely co-operate to ensure that they are swiftly returned to custody.
	Data on those offenders who had committed minor breaches of licence, were warned, and not recalled to prison are not collected centrally. Those offenders whose breach of licence has resulted in a recall to prison are published quarterly in the Ministry of Justice's Offender Management Statistics Quarterly Bulletin. This may be found at the following web address:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly
	The most recent bulletin was published on 30 January 2014, covering all offenders who were recalled to custody since 1 January 1984 and who remained unlawfully at large as at 31 December 2013. Therefore, the total number who remained unlawfully at large as at 31 December 2013 includes some offenders who were recalled before 2001-02.
	In over 99% of cases where an offender has been recalled, the individual has successfully been returned to custody. Where an offender has died we are unable to remove them from the list until we receive a death certificate.
	The data covering the years since 2001-02 are shown in the following table.
	
		
			 Financial year Number of recalls Prisoners who remain unlawfully at large 
			 2001-02 5,086 29 
			 2002-03 8,406 29 
			 2003-04 11,268 55 
			 2004-05 11,171 30 
			 2005-06 11,450 73 
			 2006-07 13,411 60 
			 2007-08 13,252 65 
			 2008-09 13,467 76 
			 2009-10 15,004 89 
			 2010-11 15,631 79 
			 2011-12 16,591 118 
			 2012-13 16,307 127 
			 2013 (April to September) 8,847 146 
		
	
	Data on the number of releases on temporary release licence (ROTL) since 1995-96, and temporary release failures since 2004-05 are published in the NOMS Prison Performance Digest. This may be found at the following web address:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/225234/prison-performance-digest-12-13.xls
	The most recent data were published on 25 July 2013.
	Data on ROTL and recorded temporary release failures are shown in the following table.
	
		
			 Financial year Release on temporary licence Recorded temporary release failures 
			 2001-02 273,569 293 
			 2002-03 294,112 312 
			 2003-04 342,742 395 
			 2004-05 397,969 366 
			 2005-06 407,199 360 
			 2006-07 409,139 306 
			 2007-08 434,728 248 
			 2008-09 431,351 277 
			 2009-10 419,016 274 
			 2010-11 431,178 281 
			 2011-12 488,158 404 
			 2012-13 518,862 431 
		
	
	Not all temporary release failures are recorded on central administrative systems. Those that are not recorded centrally are more likely to be low-level failures including, for example, returning with unauthorised possessions. These failures are managed locally. Where failures are recorded, the central administrative system only allows for one reason to be recorded; where it is a failure to return this takes priority.
	The number of prisoners unlawfully at large (UAL) having failed to return from release on temporary licence for each financial year since 2004-05 is shown in the following table.
	
		
			 Financial year Number of prisoners who remain UAL following failure to return from ROTL 
			 2004-05 15 
			 2005-06 10 
			 2006-07 10 
			 2007-08 4 
			 2008-09 5 
			 2009-10 7 
			 2010-11 3 
			 2011-12 7 
			 2012-13 7 
		
	
	To provide the number of temporary release failures where the prisoner has failed to return and remains unlawfully at large prior to this date would require the manual interrogation of 1,000 temporary release records which could be done only at disproportionate cost.
	These figures have all been drawn from live administrative data systems which may be amended at any time. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system.

Sexual Offences

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been convicted of an offence contrary to sections 30 to 41 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 in each of the last four years.

Damian Green: Our laws in these areas are robust and clear. The Government takes very seriously all matters relating to sexual abuse including the abuse of children. The proportion of offenders sentenced who were sentenced to immediate custody rose to 86% in 2012, compared to 58% in 2009.
	The number of defendants found guilty of offences under sections 30-41 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, in England and Wales from 2008 to 2012 can be viewed in the table.
	Court proceedings data for England and Wales for 2013 are planned for publication as part of the Criminal Justice Statistics publication in May 2014.
	It is not possible separately to identify the age of the victim from centrally held data or to give figures for each individual offence requested.
	
		
			 Defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty and sentenced at all courts for offences under sections 30-41 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, England and Wales, 2008 to 20121, 2, 3 
			 Outcome 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 
			 Proceeded against 46 44 62 42 44 
			 Found guilty 19 26 31 30 29 
			 Conviction ratio (percentage)5 41 59 50 71 66 
			 Sentenced 19 26 29 31 28 
			 Of which:      
			 Immediate custody 14 15 19 21 24 
			 Suspended sentence 2 6 4 3 1 
			 Community sentence 3 3 5 7 3 
			 Fine - - - - - 
			 Conditional discharge - - - - - 
			 Absolute discharge - - - - - 
			 Otherwise dealt with6 - 2 1 - - 
			 Custody rate (percentage)7 74 58 66 68 86 
			 1 The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. 2 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. 3 The number of offenders sentenced can differ from those found guilty as it may be the case that a defendant found guilty in a particular year, and committed for sentence at the Crown court, may be sentenced in the following year. 4 Excludes data for Cardiff magistrates court for April, July and August 2008. 5 Conviction ratio is calculated as the number of convictions as a proportion of the number of proceedings. 6 The category Otherwise Dealt With (ODW) includes: one day in police cells; disqualification order; restraining order; confiscation order; travel restriction order; disqualification from driving; recommendation for deportation; and other miscellaneous disposals. 7 The proportion of offenders sentenced who are sentenced to immediate custody. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services-Ministry of Justice.

Sexual Offences

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  how many people have been convicted of an offence under section 72 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 where the offence committed corresponds to an offence which would lead to automatic inclusion in the children's barred list, with the right to make representations, under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 in each of the last four years;
	(2)  how many people have been convicted of an offence contrary to section 72 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, where the offence committed corresponds to an offence which would lead to automatic inclusion in the adults' barred list, with the right to make representations, under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, in each of the last four years.

Damian Green: Information held centrally by the Ministry of Justice on the Court Proceedings Database does not include the circumstances behind each case beyond the description provided in the statute. It is not possible to separately identify findings of guilt for sexual offences committed outside England and Wales from those committed within England and Wales. This information could be obtained from the individual courts only at disproportionate cost.

Sexual Offences

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been convicted of an offence contrary to section 4 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, in each of the last four years.

Damian Green: The Criminal Law Amendment Act was repealed in respect of England and Wales in 1967. There have been no prosecutions under section 4 of that Act in any of the last four years. Prosecutions are now brought under modernised legislation contained in the Sex Offenders Act 2003.

Sexual Offences: Northern Ireland

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been convicted of an offence contrary to articles 43 to 54 of the Sexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 2008, in each of the last four years.

Simon Hughes: My Department's Court Proceedings Database holds information on criminal justice statistics only in England and Wales. Criminal Justice Statistics in Northern Ireland are a matter for the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland.

Sexual Offences: Northern Ireland

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been convicted of an offence contrary to Articles 122 (1)(a) and 123 of the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, in each of the last four years.

Simon Hughes: My Department's court proceedings database holds information on criminal justice statistics only in England and Wales. Criminal justice statistics in Northern Ireland are a matter for the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Afghanistan

Fiona O'Donnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his Department's budget for work in Afghanistan will be in 2014.

Hugh Robertson: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office budget allocated to Afghanistan for financial year 2014-15 is £62.27 million. This includes staffing, security, capital expenditure, programme spend and running and maintenance costs. This also includes the conflict pool allocation for Afghanistan.

Afghanistan

Fiona O'Donnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which staff positions in the UK embassy in Kabul are required to undergo training in human rights and gender awareness; and how many staff in the UK embassy in Kabul have undergone such training.

Hugh Robertson: All staff in the political team who have responsibility for human rights work are expected to undertake appropriate training. Beyond this, all HMG staff are encouraged to include human rights training, including gender awareness, in their pre-posting preparations before travelling out to work in our embassy in Kabul. This can include human rights briefings from London geographical desk, and meetings with Human Rights and Democracy Department thematic policy officers and Afghanistan research analysts.

Burma

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has had about the census in Burma and recognition of the Rohingya population.

Hugo Swire: The international community, including the UK through the Department for International Development, is providing significant funding to the census in 2014 because it will be a critical step in the country's development process, underpinning better planning and delivery of vital services and infrastructure such as schools, roads and hospitals.
	The UK, UN and other international donors argued strongly for the right of all people to be enumerated fairly and to be able to self-identify their ethnicity in the census. In most areas where the census is being conducted, self-identification has been permitted. We are, however, deeply disappointed that the Burmese Government reversed its commitment to allow the Rohingya to self-identify.
	I discussed our concerns on the census with the senior Burmese minister responsible, Immigration Minister U Khin Yi, on 26 March, and on 7 April summoned the Burmese ambassador. I made clear that this decision is in contravention of international norms and standards on census conduct. We are engaging in further discussions, together with the UN, as to next steps on this issue.

Iran

Adrian Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received about (a) attempts by the Iranian state to incite hatred towards the Bahá'í community and (b) the number of religiously motivated attacks on the Bahá'í in Iran.

Hugh Robertson: The Baha’i community in Iran is subject to ongoing persecution, and we are concerned by state efforts to identify, monitor and arbitrarily detain Baha’is. The March 2014 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran details examples of this persecution, including prosecution for participation in their community affairs, for example by publicly engaging in religious practices such as attending devotional gatherings. There are no reliable figures on the number of religiously motivated attacks on the Baha’i community, but according to the Baha’i international community, over 100 Baha’is currently remain in detention in Iran.
	We have repeatedly expressed concern at the sentencing of seven Baha’i leaders in Iran to 20 years imprisonment each on charges of espionage, ‘propaganda against the regime’, ‘collusion and collaboration for the purpose of endangering the national security’, and ‘spreading corruption on earth’. We raised the treatment of Baha’is with the UN Special Rapporteur at the UN Human Rights Council in March 2014, and the UK's non-resident chargé d’affaires raised human rights with a range of Iranian officials during his most recent visit to Iran in March. We will continue to press the Iranian Government to take action improve Iran’s dire human rights record.

Iran

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent reports he has received of visits to Iran by representatives of major international companies; and what his policy is on such visits.

Hugh Robertson: We are aware of reports of companies visiting Iran. The Government does not encourage trade with Iran and does not offer support to companies wishing to do so. It is for the companies themselves to assess whether any proposed activity with Iran would be compliant with the international sanctions regime. The UK considers active trade promotion by Governments to be inappropriate at present, and we have made this case to our international partners.

Kashmir

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the work of the India-Pakistan working group on confidence-building measures along the Line of Control which met on 4 March 2014.

Hugo Swire: We welcome the commitment made by the Prime Ministers of Pakistan and India in September last year to maintain a ceasefire on the line of control in Kashmir and the subsequent meeting of military commanders in December 2013. The meeting of the working group on confidence-building measures on 4 March 2014 is another positive step towards building confidence between the two sides. We encourage both sides to maintain positive dialogue, but the pace and scope of this is for the two sides to determine.

Middle East

Philip Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of recent claims by senior Palestinian Authority leader Nabil Shaath that the reason the Palestinian Authority has not stopped negotiations is because the Palestinian Authority wants the release of all prisoners arrested by Israel before the Oslo Accords.

Hugh Robertson: Palestinian President Abbas has made clear that he is committed to the current negotiations in order to reach a final status agreement. The UK will do all it can to support the parties in achieving that goal.

Middle East

Mark Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received on the pilot recently introduced by the Israeli government in response to the recommendations of the report entitled Children in Military Custody, published in June 2012.

Hugh Robertson: We have received reports from our embassy in Tel Aviv that the Israeli military have agreed to pilot the use of summons instead of night-time arrests for all Palestinians arrested including children, but approval from the relevant Knesset Committee is required before the pilot can start. We continue to lobby the Israeli authorities on this and other measures to improve treatment of Palestinians treatment in military detention.

National Iranian Oil Company

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received of the Iranian National Oil Company hosting a trade conference in London.

Hugh Robertson: We are aware that a UK-based company is exploring holding a conference in London on the future of trade in Iranian oil, involving the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). We do not support this. Our policy is not to encourage trade with Iran. Furthermore, trade in Iranian oil remains subject to EU and other international sanctions. Meanwhile, NIOC remains an EU- and US-designated entity. Any EU entity contemplating activities with, or on behalf of, a designated entity would need to ensure their compliance with these sanctions.

Nuclear Security Summit

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs with reference to the statement given by the UK at the Nuclear Security Summit held in The Hague on 24 and 25 March 2014, if he will (a) place in the Library and (b) post on his Department's website (i) each of the reports on discussion meetings hosted in partnership with the Royal United Services Institute, the Dutch Embassy and King's College London, (ii) copies of the UK presentation at a meeting of the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Materials and Weapons of Mass Destruction, (iii) the UK paper delivered at the IAEA International Nuclear Security Conference 2013 and (iv) the UK 2013 UNSCR1540 National Action Implementation Plan highlighting measures to protect sensitive information effectively.

Hugh Robertson: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office delivered a single Nuclear Information Security workshop in partnership with the Royal United Services Institute, the Dutch embassy and Kings College London. No official record of this event was taken. The UK subsequently produced a short guide to Nuclear Information Security for circulation to the 85 partners of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism. This document covers many of the issues discussed at the workshop and will be placed in the Library.
	The UK presentation to the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Materials and Weapons of Mass Destruction took the form of an oral update by a government official. The issues covered were the same as those presented at the 2013 IAEA International Nuclear Security Conference. This UK presentation and the requested conference paper will be placed in the Library, as will the UK 2014 UNSCR1540 National Action Implementation Plan. We have no plans to publish these detailed documents on gov.uk, though the UNSCR 1540 National Action Implementation Plan is available on the internet at
	http://www.un.org/en/sc/1540/national-implementation/pdf/UK_action-plan.pdf

Palestinians

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent reports he has received on financial payments by the Palestinian Authority to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Hugh Robertson: UK officials raised the issue of payments to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails with the Palestinian Authority (PA) most recently in March 2014. The International Development Committee also received information on this issue from the Minister of Finance during their visit in March.

Singapore

Stephen Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps his Department is taking to enhance trade and co-operation between the UK and Singapore.

Hugo Swire: Singapore is the UK's largest trading partner in South East Asia. Our relationship is supported by very senior visits in both directions; most recently Prime Minister Lee visited London in March. Initiatives to enhance cooperation include the UK-Singapore Economic and Business Partnership, launched in October 2011, which focuses on increasing business, research and development and policy exchange. During the visit of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, my right hon. Friend the Member for Tatton (Mr Osborne), in February a new bilateral Financial Dialogue and private sector working group on offshore renminbi (RMB) was launched.
	UK Trade & Investment is also working to position UK companies for commercial contracts relating to the doubling of Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit System, development of Changi International Airport and the planned new megaport in Tuas. To date, British firms have secured contracts from these projects worth £512 million.
	The work of the Overseas Business Network Initiative, launched by the Prime Minister in November 2012, and the UK-ASEAN Business Council also underpin the UK-Singapore trade relationship. Looking ahead the State Visit by President Tan in autumn 2014 and ratification of the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement will strengthen our bilateral trade and investment links even further.

Sri Lanka

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will review the Government's policy on the position of President Rajapaksa as Commonwealth Chairperson-in-office following the adoption of the Human Rights Council Resolution establishing an international investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes in Sri Lanka.

Hugo Swire: The Commonwealth is a consensus organisation, and as such, decisions on the Chair in Office role are necessarily made by consensus. As the British Government has made clear, it is important that allegations of violations and abuses of international law on both sides of Sri Lanka's military conflict are thoroughly investigated. On 27 March 2014, the UN agreed a renewed resolution that establishes an international investigation, in addition to calling on the Sri Lankan Government to make progress on human rights and reconciliation.

Turkey

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with the Turkish Prime Minister on show-trials and the jailing of journalists in that country.

David Lidington: We regularly raise concerns about the number of journalists imprisoned in Turkey and the efficacy of judicial process, as part of a broader dialogue on freedom of expression in that country.
	During my visit to Turkey in February I discussed these issues directly with my counterpart, Minister for EU Affairs Mevlüt Cavusoglu and reiterated the importance the UK attaches to the rule of law and fundamental rights.
	The UK is clear that the EU Accession process remains the most effective mechanism for continuing reform in Turkey and we remain fully committed to, and supportive of, that process. As a candidate country, we expect Turkey to promote the values of freedom of expression, democracy and the rule of law, in line with EU standards.